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.