Gold recovers

Bengaluru

Gold prices recovered slightly after touching a near 10-month low in early trade on Thursday as the dollar index eased, but growing odds of a U.S. interest rate hike capped further gains.

Spot gold was up 0.25 percent at $1,175.36 an ounce by 0711 GMT. The metal hit its lowest since Feb. 5 at $1,163.45 earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures rose about 0.3 percent to $1,173.80 per ounce.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, eased 0.26 percent to 101.240. "Gold has been sensitive to the U.S. monetary policy and dollar movements," said Mark To, head of research at Hong Kong´s Wing Fung Financial Group. "Inflation as well as pace of interest rate hike expectations among the investors are increasing along with the opportunity cost of holding gold."