Gold falls as euro sags

Gold fell yesterday under the weight of a weaker euro, while platinum shrugged off news of fresh disruption to production at South Africa's largest miner of the metal. The euro remained clear of last week's four-month lows, but was stuck in negative territory against the dollar ahead of an informal meeting later this week of European leaders aimed at discussing ways of stemming the debt crisis. Across the broader markets, Eur-opean blue-chip shares clung on to their gains, lifted by investors buying back some of the more heavily-sold names, while modest optimism that the summit could offer some interim solution to the crisis put pressure on safe-haven German Bunds. Spot gold was down 0.8 per cent at $1,580.50 an ounce by 1205 GMT. The price is still showing its largest week-on-week gain since mid-April, having risen by 2.5 per cent. "Having failed at $1,600 on Monday, the market has looked for the direction of least resistance and that is currently down," Ole Hansen, a senior manager at Saxo Bank, said."The EU summit could get quite interesting behind closed doors given Merkel's statement that she would not hesitate to disagree with Hollande," he said, adding that soft physical demand also put the gold price at some risk of further corrections.