Latest gold price forecast: Expect more declines
Dubai-(UAR (Mar 28) This week may be a good time for gold fans to shop for a new jewellery piece as retail prices appear to be the lowest since February this year.
Besides, the majority of analysts are also expecting more price declines over the next few days, as the sentiment in favour of the metal weakened on speculations of yet another Federal Reserve interest rate adjustments.
As of Sunday, 11.30am, 24-carat gold in Dubai retailed at Dh147.25, the lowest since February. The price of 22K was set at Dh138.50, while 21K and 18K traded at Dh132 and Dh113.25, respectively.
During early trade on Thursday, spot gold registered a 0.6 per cent decline to $1,212.20 an ounce, its weakest since February 26, before rebounding to $1,221.95, up 0.2 per cent by 1910 GMT, according to Reuters. There have been speculations that the Fed will increase the rates in April and later this year.
In Kitco’s latest gold survey, the majority of experts on Wall Street (63 per cent) aren’t expecting the metal to increase this week. Among the retail investors, only less than half (46 per cent) are positive that prices will go higher in the next few days.
ABN Amro has just revised its price forecast, citing that gold will average $1,250 this month, compared to $1,325 in the previous calculations. Its forecast for the rest of the year, however, showed that prices would continue on a constant upward path, rising monthly to reach $1,370 an ounce by December this year.
“Going forward, we expect higher precious metal prices during the course of this year. More monetary stimulus by central banks should support investor sentiment and the overall cyclical demand and jewellery demand outlook, resulting in a further outperformance of the cyclical precious metals compared to gold this year and next year,” stated Georgette Boele, the bank’s coordinator for foreign exchange and precious metals strategy, in her latest analysis.
Gold prices rallied at little over 20 per cent since the beginning of the year. The latest retail prices in Dubai are still about 15 per cent higher compared to December 31 prices.
Source: GulfNews
