Mubasher: Gold rose on Monday, trading near its highest level in six years, as safe-haven demand gained support from dovish hints from major central banks and escalating tensions between Iran and the US, according to Reuters.

By 7:43 am GMT, spot gold rose by 0.21% to $1,402.63 per ounce, after hitting $1,410.78 per ounce on Friday, its highest since 4 September, 2013, while US gold futures climbed by 0.49% to $1,406.90 per ounce.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday said that he was not seeking war with Iran, yet tensions remained heightened between Washington and Tehran as State Secretary Mike Pompeo is due to announce “significant” sanctions against Iran on Monday.

“We are just seeing continued improvement in sentiment built around the more dovish tone from central banks, but clearly the safe-haven buying has also picked up with the US-Iran tensions escalating over the weekend,” Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) bank analyst Daniel Hynes was quoted by Reuters.

The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB) last week signalled that the door was open for loosening their monetary policies amidst ongoing trade rows, and the consequent global economic slowdown.

Moreover, the US dollar dived to three-month trough against its major peers as investors wagered that the Fed would start to cut interest rates as early as next month.

At 7:46 am GMT, the dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six rivals, declined by 0.03% to 96.19.

Market participants have now shifted their focus to whether the US and China can reach a resolution to their protracted trade conflict at the Group of 20 (G20) this week in Japan, where President Trump is due to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the event.

“Gold surpassed some fairly good support levels, so [I] do feel like prices will broadly hold above the $1,400 level,” ANZ’s Hynes said, predicting that “at some point we might see a pullback as investors lock in profits.”