Greece’s financial saga helped gold futures settle higher for the first time this month, with the precious metal benefiting on Monday from haven-related buying interest on renewed worries about Athens’s ability to fund itself.
Gold futures for April delivery GCJ5, -0.06% on Comex rose $2.20, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,166.50 an ounce. Prices have suffered declines in each of the past five trading sessions, losing a total of 4% last week.
May silver SIK5, -0.23% fell 3.1 cents, or 0.2%, to settle at $15.776 an ounce.
Tokyo (Nikkei Average NIK, +0.29% ) up 0.2% (at break)
Hong Kong (Hang Seng Index HSI, -0.53% ) down 0.6%
Shanghai (Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, -0.54% ) down 0.6%
Sydney (S&P/ASX 200 XJO, +0.25% ) up 0.3%
Seoul (Kospi SEU, -0.36% ) down 0.4%
Taipei (Taiex Y9999, -0.28% ) flat
THE Straits Times Index (STI) rebounded early on Tuesday to gain 3.23 points or 0.09 per cent and trade at 3.407.8 as investors awaited China inflation data and following a rebound in US markets.
A total of 47 million shares worth S$71.9 million changed hands as at 9am, with gainers outnumbering losers 86 to 37 right out of the gate.
The most active stocks were led by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings, up 0.4 per cent or half a Singapore cent at S$1.22 as at 9am. Lippo Malls Indo Retail Trust slipped 1.4 per cent or 0.5 Singapore cent to trade at 34.5 Singapore cents, while Noble Group was down 0.5 per cent or 0.5 Singapore cent to change hands at 99.5 Singapore cents.
China is expected to report inflation data at 9.30am.
