Bullion for immediate delivery rose as much as 0.4 percent to $1,355.15 an ounce, within 0.7 percent of its Oct. 7 record, and traded at $1,354.65 at 10:18 a.m. in Singapore. Gold has gained 8.7 percent in the past month as the dollar dropped 5.6 percent against a basket of six currencies.

“The dollar is under pressure and this is helping gold prices higher,” said Ng Cheng Thye, head of bullion at Standard Bank Asia. “That said, the emergence of scrap selling around the $1,355 level has halted the rally and gold will probably need a fresh round of negative news to pick up the pace again.”

Gold futures surged to the highest ever in Shanghai, gaining to 292.23 yuan a gram ($1,362 an ounce) before trading at 292.01 yuan. Immediate delivery gold of 99.95 percent purity on the Shanghai Gold Exchange, the benchmark cash contract, jumped to a record 290.85 yuan a gram today. Bullion of 99.99 percent purity also reached an all-time high of 291.2 yuan.

The dollar traded near the lowest level in 15 years against the yen and a record low versus the Swiss franc on speculation that the Federal Reserve will take steps to support growth. The Dollar Index dropped to near the lowest level since January after the Fed yesterday said in its September meeting minutes that they were prepared to ease monetary policy “before long.”

Silver increased 0.6 percent to $23.4788 an ounce, platinum gained 0.7 percent to $1,693.50 an ounce and palladium climbed 1.4 percent to $591.75 an ounce.

Source: Bloomberg