Gold gains

Reuters

Manila

Gold rose to a near 1-1/2-week high on Thursday, with its safe-haven appeal intact as equities and oil gave up early gains, while the U.S. dollar came under pressure.

Bullion has benefited from the risk-averse sentiment that has dragged equities and oil to multi-year lows and pushed investors towards assets considered a safe store of value.  It's no surprise that gold has edged higher along with other safe-havens like the Japanese yen because "the risk aversion story is here", said Barnabas Gan, an analyst at OCBC Bank in Singapore.  Spot gold was up 0.3 percent at $1,103.80 an ounce by 0709 GMT. It touched $1,109.20 on Wednesday, its highest since Jan. 8.

As prices rose, physical gold demand in Asia slowed this week, curbing seasonal buying interest in China ahead of a big holiday and forcing sellers in India to offer a discount.