Gold gaining for fourth week in a row

Gold kept its edge for the fourth week running and ended the first month of 2014 on a gain of five percent, as shown in a specialized report issued here, Sunday. According to the Sabaek Al-Kuwait report, gold closed at USD 1,241 per ounce and managed to withstand the shock of the Fed's decision to curb quantitative easing measures. True to analysts' forecasts, demand for the yellow metal increased and investment funds are again stocking the commodity which resulted in strong prices. "Prices would most probably increase further towards USD 1,300 per ounce in the coming period," it said. Among the factors bolstering demand, the report mentioned resumption of business after the new year holiday in Beijing, as well as the Indian decision to amend custom fees on gold imports. As for last week's drop in price, the report said it was only profit-taking through electronic transactions. "However, we forecast more demand for the commodity, in kind, in the near future, since all are confident that though current price levels are higher than those of previous months, they still make good purchase opportunities." When it came to silver, the report said the metal failed to gain from the positive factors that bolstered gold, and failed to approach the USD 21 per ounce level early last week, and actually faltered below USD 19 per ounce on Wednesday. This was attributed to dense profit-taking and hot speculating action. "But the biggest bets are on a hike of the metal to the USD 25 range within Q1 of 2014." The local market was a scene of much profit-taking as well early in the week, with pure gold selling above KD 11.5 per gram for 24 carat. Later in the week, prices came lower and demand increased