Gold, silver up in Asia

Gold and silver inched higher on Tuesday, supported by light physical buying in Asia as investors scrutinise the currency market for direction. Spot gold edged up 0.3 percent to $1,493.66 an ounce by 0540 GMT. US gold futures inched up 0.2 percent to $1,493.50.
Silver rose half a percent to $33.74 an ounce. Leading the precious metals complex, silver rose as much as 60 percent from the end of 2010 to a record of $49.51 on April 28, before dropping more than 30 percent. It was still 9 percent on the year.