KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 -- The gold futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives remained unchanged for the 14th consecutive trading day today in a quiet market.

Phillip Futures Sdn Bhd dealer Ong Su Ling said the benchmark US COMEX gold market was slightly higher and is set to post its biggest quarterly gain since 2016 driven by pent up demand for the precious metal. 

"This is driven by economic uncertainty due to the surge of COVID-19 cases and the warning from the World Health Organisation that the worst of the pandemic is yet to come," she said.

Countries around the world including the United States had to reverse economic re-openings and closed businesses to combat a spike in cases, while infections in countries like India and Brazil continued to rise.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to influence trading further until the pandemic subsides or a vaccine is found," she said. 

On Malaysia’s market outlook, she said gold prices would likely move upwards on higher demand amidst financial uncertainty due to the pandemic. 

At the close, June 2020, July 2020, August 2020 and September 2020 remained flat at RM238.60, RM238.65, RM241.00 and RM239.45 per gramme, respectively.

Volume remained nil, while open interest was unchanged at 53 contracts.

At 5 pm, the price of physical gold was down seven sen to RM235.76 per gramme.

-- BERNAMA