VINACHEM

Gold climbed to the highest levelthis month in London after the dollar’s decline and bullion’sadvance above $1,320 an ounce spurred more purchases.

The metal advanced 4.2 percent since reaching a three-weeklow of $1,273.02 an ounce on Aug. 7. The Bloomberg U.S. DollarIndex, a measure against 10 major currencies, rose for the firsttime in more than a week after reaching a seven-week low Aug. 8.

Gold fell into a bear market in April and is down 21percent this year as some investors lost faith in the metal as astore of value and inflation failed to accelerate amidunprecedented money printing by central banks. Charles Evans, Sandra Pianalto and Richard Fisher, regional Federal Reservepresidents in Chicago, Cleveland and Dallas, said last week theFed may be closer to tapering as the jobs market recovers.

“On the back of a relatively lower dollar we went throughthe $1,320 level,” Afshin Nabavi, a senior vice president atbullion refiner MKS (Switzerland) SA in Geneva, said today byphone. Technical “buying above the $1,320 level pushed it up.On Friday we had good physical interest and today that’s beenquieter” amid higher prices, he said.

Gold for immediate delivery rose as much as 1.5 percent to$1,333.94, the highest since July 31, and was at $1,326.95 by9:35 a.m. in London. Bullion for December delivery gained 1.1percent to $1,326.20 on the Comex in New York. Futures tradingvolume was 8.5 percent above the average for the past 100 daysfor this time of day, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.

ETP Holdings

Gold exchange-traded product holdings rose 1.4 metric tonsto 1,948.3 tons on Aug. 9, the first increase this month, datacompiled by Bloomberg show. Assets are down 26 percent this yearand reached a three-year low of 1,946.9 tons on Aug. 8.

“What we need to maintain the current gold price level isactually inflows,” Dominic Schnider, head of commoditiesresearch at UBS AG’s wealth-management unit in Singapore, saidon Bloomberg Television today, predicting lower prices in thenext three to six months. “What’s really saved us so far on theconsumer side in emerging markets has been China.”

China’s gold consumption rose 54 percent to 706.4 tons inthe first half of 2013 from a year earlier, the China GoldAssociation said today. Gold-bar purchases surged 87 percent andjewelry demand gained 44 percent, it said.

Silver for immediate delivery gained 2 percent to $20.9665an ounce in London, reaching $21.2952, the highest since June20. Palladium added 0.1 percent to $743.05 an ounce, aftertouching $747.50, the highest since July 29. Platinum set a two-month high of $1,509.53 an ounce and was last down 0.3 percentat $1,498. Prices rose a fifth week in the period to Aug. 9, thebest run since February 2012.