By Rosemarie Khoo Mohd Sani

KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 (Bernama) -- The gold futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives is likely to maintain its buying support next week due to ongoing geopolitical concerns, strong physical buying in Asia, and the expanding United States (US) deficit.

SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes told Bernama that the precious metal’s movements are also expected to be closely tied to the trajectory of the US dollar in the near term. 

During the trading week, the domestic gold futures predominantly traded lower on dissipation of war risk, and weaker US economic data. 

The volume of gold futures in the local market eased to 68 lots from 218 lots in the previous week, while open interest dropped to 17 contracts from 120 contracts a week ago.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the April 2024 contract slipped to US$2,351.40 per troy ounce from US$2,389.40, while May 2024 eased to US$2,367.50 from US$2,405.50 last week.

Contracts for June 2024, July 2024, August 2024, and October 2024 all settled lower at US$2,372.70 per troy ounce compared to US$2,410.70 a week earlier.

According to the London Bullion Market Association’s afternoon fix on April 25, the price of physical gold stood at US$2,318.70 per troy ounce.

-- BERNAMA