KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 15 -- Gold futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives is likely to remain attractive for investors amid the COVID-19 outbreak, affecting their risk appetite, dealers said.

AxiCorp's chief market strategist Stephen Innes said although gold rallied on fresh COVID-19 concerns, risk appetite lately tends to rebound quickly.

“So, unless there is new negative news to prompt a renewed deterioration in risk-on equity demand, this could limit gold's top side ambitions,” he told Bernama.

Another dealer, Phillip Futures Sdn Bhd trader Lee Pei Wan said the markets are also awaiting the US retail sales data to measure the economy’s health.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis for the week just ended, spot month February 2020 and March 2020 both gained 34 ticks to RM208.7 a gramme, while April 2020 and May 2020 rose 44 ticks each to RM210.10 and RM210.15 a gramme, respectively.

Weekly turnover decreased to eight lots valued at RM167,180 from nine lots valued at RM186,130 last week, while open interest widened to 137 contracts from 134 contracts previously.

-- BERNAMA