Gold extends 3-day rise, awaits comments from ECB's Draghi

By Jan Harvey

LONDON (Reuters) - Gold rose for a third day on Thursday, helped by an uptick in the euro, after the European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged and maintained the parameters of its 1.74 trillion euro ($1.95 trillion) asset buying scheme.

The ECB has provided extraordinary stimulus in recent years in response to high unemployment, weak growth and ultra low inflation, cutting interest rates into negative territory and pushing the cost of credit to all-time lows.

Ultra-low rates tend to support gold, though that is sometimes offset by the impact of a weaker euro.

Spot gold was at $1,271.15 an ounce at 1156 GMT, up 0.2 percent, while U.S. December gold futures were up $2.10 an ounce at $1,272.00.

Markets now turn their attention to ECB President Mario Draghi's 1230 GMT news conference, where he is expected to provide hints about the future of the asset purchases, likely to be decided in December.

"The focus today will be the ECB meeting where the market is looking for clarification on a number of issues," Saxo Bank's head of commodity research Ole Hansen said, including "bond tapering, and further signs that additional measures are off the table."

Gold prices are up 1.5 percent this week, on track to snap three weeks of losses. The precious metal has regained some technical momentum after closing on Wednesday above its 200-day moving average of $1,267.

The euro was up 0.1 percent against the dollar after the ECB statement. Stocks inched higher after the third and final U.S. presidential debate, which was judged not to have improved Donald Trump's election hopes.

That weighed on gold. A win for Democrat Hillary Clinton is now clearly predicted by polls, and is seen as easing the way for a rise in interest rates, heavily tipped by a number of Federal Reserve policymakers for December.

India's overseas purchases of gold likely hit a nine-month high in October as a flip in domestic prices to a premium prompted banks and refiners to resume imports ahead of the festival season, industry officials told Reuters.

Swiss gold exports to China hit their highest since January last month, Swiss customs data showed on Thursday, though a sharp drop in shipments to Hong Kong meant exports to the two combined were sharply lower than a year earlier.

"Significantly more gold was shipped directly to China," Commerzbank said in a note. "What is more, Swiss gold exports to India climbed to their highest level since January, which points to demand recovering there."

Among other precious metals, silver was flat at $17.63 an ounce, while platinum was down 0.2 percent at $941 an ounce and palladium was 0.4 percent lower at $633.60 an ounce.

(Additional reporting by Apeksha Nair and Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; editing by David Clarke/Ruth Pitchford)