Gold climbs near $1609 on Cyprus concerns

            
           Gold climbed past the coveted $1600 mark in Asian trade Monday as yet another EU member forced to accept a bailout plan.
 
Gold was seen trading at $1608.34 an ounce at 12.00 noon Singapore time while U.S. Gold was seen at $1607.05 an ounce on the comex division of nymex.

Analysts said the precious yellow metal is likely to extend gains during the day as Cyprus bailout package threatened to trigger fresh turmoil in the euro zone, driving investors to seek safety in gold.


The euro zone agreed on Saturday to hand Cyprus a bailout worth 10 billion euros ($13 billion), but forced the country's depositors to pay up to 10 percent on their savings despite the risk of a wider run on savings.

Investors are worried the proposal, if ratified by the Cypriot parliament on Monday, would become a dangerous template for future bailouts in the bloc and set off turmoil, after the market has grown more confident in the bloc's recovery in the past few months.

On Friday, gold closed the week with a one percent gain while silver ended losing 0.4% for the week.

Gold for April delivery, the most actively traded contract, gained $1.90 or 0.1 percent to close at $1,592.60 an ounce Friday on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
May silver also tacked on 4 cents, or nearly 0.2%, to end at $28.85 an ounce. 
Courtesy : Bullionstreet