Gold up

Bengaluru

Gold rose to its highest in four weeks on Thursday as the U.S. dollar stepped further away from a 14-year peak with investors locking in gains from its two-month-old rally, and on a technical rebound.

Spot gold was up 0.8 percent at $1,171.28 an ounce by 0032 GMT.

It earlier hit its highest since Dec. 8 at $1,172.96. U.S. gold futures climbed 0.6 percent to $1,172.50 per ounce.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was down 0.4 percent at 102.270. "It´s more of a dollar sell-off than a gold move this morning," said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at brokerage OANDA in Singapore.

"The dollar is weak across the board and gold itself has technically broken out of its down channel in December.

" Spot gold is expected to rise to $1,182 per ounce, according to Reuters´ market analyst for commodities and energy technicals, Wang Tao.