Gold stable

Bengaluru : Gold prices were mostly steady in range-bound Asian trade on Thursday, after gaining for two straight sessions, with a strong dollar weighing on upside momentum.

Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,214.23 an ounce at 0657 GMT, having gained 0.2 percent in the previous session.

U.S. gold futures were up 0.1 percent at $1,222.2 an ounce.

The U.S. dollar on Thursday stabilised versus the yen after earlier in the session dropping to a two-week low ahead of trade talks between the United States and Japan and amid speculation over when the Bank of Japan will exit its ultra-easy monetary policy.

The greenback was steady versus the yuan and up 0.1 percent against other major rivals. "There´s no major event that´s driving gold prices. It´s going to be trading in a very tight range," said Richard Xu, a fund manager at HuaAn Gold, China´s biggest gold exchange-traded fund.