Gold nudges up, but set for biggest weekly fall in 15 months

By Apeksha Nair

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Gold eked out small gains in Asian trade on Friday after declining to a 19-month low in the previous session, but the metal remained on track for its biggest weekly decline since mid-2017.

Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,175.22 an ounce, as of 0637 GMT, while U.S. gold futures were down 0.2 percent at $1,181.30 an ounce.

For the week, spot gold has shed 2.9 percent in what could be its sixth consecutive weekly decline. It hit its lowest since January 2017 at $1,159.96 on Thursday on some aggressive stop-loss selling.

"Investors, businesses and perhaps a lot of people are looking to pick up gold and that's why we're seeing some support," said Brian Lan, managing director at dealer GoldSilver Central in Singapore.

A mild correction in the dollar, after the currency gained against most peers this week, also lent support to gold's recovery. A weaker dollar makes greenback-denominated gold cheaper for holders of other currencies.

The dollar edged further away from a 13-1/2-month high hit earlier this week, as risk aversion eased after China agreed to hold lower-level trade talks with Washington this month, offering hope that they might resolve an escalating tariff war.

Weakness in emerging-market currencies amid the Sino-U.S. trade spat and Turkey crisis has seen investors pour money into the U.S. dollar, leading the greenback to serve as a safe-haven asset during uncertainty.

"The dollar is still trending higher and is the safe-haven vehicle of choice, so gold is still under pressure from that source," said Nicholas Frappell, general manager with ABC Bullion.

"It's reasonable to expect (gold) prices to retrace some of the recent aggressive move-down in the short-term, but there doesn't seem to be evidence for a sustained move higher yet."

Spot gold looks neutral in a range of $1,173-$1,182 per ounce, and an escape could suggest a direction, Reuters technicals analyst Wang Tao said.

Meanwhile, trade-talk hopes kept Asian stocks buoyed on Friday, which also drew confidence from a sustained recovery in the Turkish lira after it plunged to a record low earlier this week.

Finance Minister Berat Albayrak assured international investors on Thursday that Turkey would emerge stronger from its currency crisis, insisting its banks were healthy and signalling it could ride out a dispute with the United States.

Among other precious metals, silver inched up 0.2 percent to $14.64 an ounce, but was headed for its biggest weekly decline since early February.

Platinum rose 0.4 percent to $780 an ounce, but was on track for its biggest weekly drop since November 2015.

Palladium was up 0.1 percent at $890.50 an ounce, but stayed on track to post a weekly fall.

(Reporting by Apeksha Nair and Sumita Layek in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri and Subhranshu Sahu)