Gold futures finished higher on Monday for a fourth session in a row with concerns surrounding Greece’s debt problems and a sharp drop in the U.S. dollar providing support for the metal.
Gold for April delivery on Comex GCJ5, -0.19% rose $3.10, or 0.3%, to settle at $1,187.70 an ounce on Comex. May silver SIK5, -0.04% added less than a penny to $16.891 an ounce. Gold ended Friday with a 2.8% gain for the week, while silver jumped around 9%.
Tokyo (Nikkei Average NIK, -0.08% ) down 0.2%
Hong Kong (Hang Seng Index HSI, -0.61% ) down 0.5%
Shanghai (Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, -1.35% ) flat
Sydney (S&P/ASX 200 XJO, +0.30% ) up 0.1%
Seoul (Kospi SEU, -0.10% ) down 0.1%
Taipei (Taiex Y9999, -0.40% ) down 0.4%
Asian equity markets turned lower on Tuesday after a gauge of Chinese manufacturing plunged to an 11-month low in March, while the euro was boosted by hopes of a breakthrough in Greece's bailout talks with Germany.
Comments from the US Federal Reserve's vice chairman suggesting interest rates would rise slower than expected put further downward pressure on the dollar.
Shanghai - which rose Monday for a ninth straight session to a near seven year high - sank 0.60 per cent, while Hong Kong lost 0.33 per cent.
Tokyo shed 0.19 per cent and Seoul was 0.11 per cent lower. Sydney was flat.
Global markets have been on a broad uptrend since the Fed on Wednesday tempered talk of an early summer rate hike by saying there were still weaknesses in the US economy.
However, traders retreated to the sidelines on Tuesday after HSBC's preliminary purchasing managers' index (PMI) suggested manufacturing activity saw a surprise contraction in March.
