Gold was little changed near $1,410 an ounce on Monday but notched its biggest monthly gain since August as chaos in Libya and rising tensions across the Middle East prompted investors to buy the metal as a safe haven. Despite its February gains, gold failed to test its record high set in December due to technical resistance, as financial markets had already factored in the geopolitical risk premium for gold, analysts said.
Spot gold eased 0.2 percent to $1,406 an ounce at 2:40 p.m. EST (1940 GMT). US gold futures for April delivery settled up 60 cents at $1,409.90. Turnover for gold futures was 40 percent below its 30-day average, in line with recent lower-than-usual volume, preliminary Reuters data showed.
Silver gained 0.6 percent to $33.51 an ounce after rising for a fifth consecutive week last week. Prices have rallied 20 percent this month, their biggest one-month rise since May 2009. The gold-silver ratio, which shows how many ounces of silver it takes to buy one ounce of gold, approached a 13-year low. Silver has risen amid limited supplies for near-term delivery and on prospects of rising demand for industrial metals as the economy recovers. Among other precious metals, platinum edged down 50 cents to $1,802.99 an ounce and palladium gained 1.1 percent to $794.22.