Gold falls in London

Gold fell more than 1 percent on Friday, hurt by a slide in the euro after a Greek party leader said he couldn't back the 130-billion euro bailout deal the country needs to avoid going bankrupt, which comes at the cost of painful austerity measures. Euro zone finance ministers are still seeking further measures from Greece before signing off on a second bailout.
Spot gold fell as low as $1,703.69 an ounce and was down 0.9 percent at $1,715.49 an ounce at 1456 GMT. US gold futures for February delivery were down $23.30 an ounce at $1,717.90. "Today, the market is in risk-off mood again with stock markets weaker as well," said Alex Zumpfe, a trader at Heraeus precious metals house. "Gold is facing some selling pressure after support levels didn't trigger sufficient buying interest.
Other commodities also fell, with prices of base metals like copper and aluminium weakening on worries about Greece's bailout plan, while crude oil slipped, halting an eight-day rally, as the International Energy Agency (IEA) cut its oil growth demand forecast for a sixth consecutive month. Against this backdrop, gold looks vulnerable to a correction after rising nearly 10 percent so far this year. "Gains in the US dollar and consistent disappointment from the European Union regarding the Greece debt deal are curbing any gains in gold," said Pradeep Unni, senior analyst at Richcomm Global Services.
More price-positive news has emerged, however. The biggest operator of US futures exchanges, the CME Group, on Thursday lowered trading margins for a range of commodities contracts, including gold, silver and platinum. "In August and September of last year, CME almost doubled the margin within just a few weeks, thereby contributing to the sharp fall in the price of gold," Commerzbank said in a note. Indonesia is to ban exports of some raw materials, including gold and silver, from 2014, the Mineral Resources Ministry said. The country was the world's seventh-largest gold producer last year with output of 115 tonnes, according to metals consultancy GFMS, and produced 6.9 million ounces of silver in 2010, making it Asia's fourth-largest miner of the metal.
Silver was down 1.3 percent at $33.42 an ounce. Spot platinum was down 0.7 percent at $1,641 an ounce, while spot palladium was down 1.2 percent at $697.97. President Jacob Zuma squashed more than two years of talk on Friday about the nationalisation of South Africa's massive mining sector, saying state control or ownership of the mines in the world's biggest platinum producer could not work. However, South Africa's mining sector - the fifth-biggest in the world by value - faces the prospect of higher taxes and royalties as the government tries to squeeze out better returns for the country's 50 million people. "Had the ANC promoted a pro-nationalisation agenda we believe the impact on PGM prices would have been very bullish as foreign investment and quite possibly professional expertise would have deserted the country," said HSBC in a note.