Gold gains as stock sell-off revives safe-haven appeal

By Sethuraman N R

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Gold prices rose on Thursday as a sell-off in global stock markets prompted investors to seek safety in the metal, with a softer dollar further supporting bullion.

Spot gold gained 0.8 percent to $1,203.30 an ounce by 0947 GMT. U.S. gold futures added 1.1 percent at $1,206.20 an ounce.

European stocks fell in line with a slump on Wall Street, pointing to growing risk aversion across global markets and turning greater attention to U.S. inflation data later in the day for clues on the pace of monetary tightening. [MKTS/GLOB]

"Gold is finding a bit of support from the global sell-off seen in equities. If this (sell-off) persists, we will start seeing more of a move to gold as a safe-haven asset," ING analyst Warren Patterson said.

"Rising U.S. yields and general strength in the dollar have meant that investors have largely ignored gold. But people are seeing fairly good value at current levels on the back of some macro concerns," Patterson said.

Wednesday's dive on Wall Street prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to lash out against the U.S. Federal Reserve for raising interest rates. Some analysts said his comments were supporting gold prices somewhat.

The Fed increased interest rates last month for the third time this year and is widely expected to hike again in December, with no suggestion its tightening will cease any time soon.

Gold has fallen about 13 percent since hitting a peak in April, with investors increasingly switching to the safety of the greenback as the U.S.-China trade war unfolded against a backdrop of rising U.S. interest rates.

But gold has recovered from a 1-1/2-year low of $1,059.96 hit in mid-August, propped up by limited safe-haven buying at the lower end of its range, spurred by concerns over economic growth and inflationary pressure from soaring oil prices. [O/R]

Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 1.21 percent to 738.99 tonnes on Wednesday. This was the SPDR ETF's first gain since July and the biggest inflow since March.

Spot silver rose 1.1 percent to $14.42 an ounce and palladium was up 1.2 percent at $1,079.72. Platinum edged up 0.2 percent to $820.50 an ounce.

(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman and Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Dale Hudson)