Mubasher: Gold prices edged up on Wednesday, bolstered by a weaker dollar on prospects of an agreement between the US and China over their prolonged trade conflict.

Nevertheless, the improved risk-taking sentiment kept a lid on the precious metal’s gains.

By 8:55 am GMT, US gold futures went up 0.13% to $1,315.80 per ounce, while spot gold rose 0.16% to $1,312.91 per ounce.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he could consider letting the 1 March deadline slide a bit in, if both sides were close to reaching an agreement to put their long-drawn trade row.

US tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports are due to be raised to 25% from 10%, should the world’s two biggest economies fail to ink a deal by the deadline, increasing pain and costs in sectors from consumer electronics to agriculture.

“There is very little detail behind some of those comments [and] there has been nothing really strong enough to drive any strong conviction,” Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) bank analyst Daniel Hynes told Thomson Reuters.

Many central banks have knocked down their economic outlook and shifted their monetary policy stance, giving the yellow metal support, precious metals dealer Wing Fung said in a note.

For instance, New Zealand’s central bank followed in the footsteps of its peers in retaining the possibility of a rate cut on the grounds of mounting economic risks.

Nevertheless, improved risk-taking sentiment capped gold’s gains, as Asian equities hitting more than four-month high.

“The safe-haven buying that we saw earlier in the month is now a little more fragile [after recent developments in US-Sino trade negotiations],” Hynes said.

The US dollar index, struggled against its Asian rivals, declining marginally to 96.66. In the prior session, the gauge dropped around 0.4% in its worst one-day loss since two weeks.

By 8:01 am GMT, the greenback index ticked up 0.02% to 96.7240.