Gold holds gains on Ukraine tensions but fund outflows continue

Singapore: Gold was trading near a one-week high, retaining sharp gains from the previous session, as heightened tensions and violence in Ukraine burnished the metal's safe-haven appeal. However, further outflows from the top gold fund indicated that the gains could be short-lived.          

Fundamentals 

Spot gold was flat at $1,300.33 an ounce, gaining 1.3 per cent on Friday.     

Pro-Russian militants stormed a Ukrainian police station in Odessa on Sunday and freed nearly 70 fellow activists as the country's leaders lamented a police force they said was widely undermined by graft or collaboration with separatists.    

Militants smashed windows and broke down the gate at the compound two days after over 40 pro-Russian activists died in a blaze at a building they had occupied after clashes with pro-Kiev groups.      

Gold's reaction to Friday's US jobs data was mixed. Employers hired workers at the fastest clip in more than two years in April. However, there was a sharp increase in the number of people dropping out of the labour force, which pushed the unemployment rate to a 5-1/2-year low of 6.3 per cent.       

SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 2.70 tonnes to 782.85 tonnes on Friday, its third straight session of losses. Last week alone, the fund saw nearly 10 tonnes in outflows.