A little of the shine comes off gold

The Australian dollar gold price has climbed almost 33 per cent in the past year but pulled back by $20 an ounce yesterday to $2146.34.

An employee arranges one kilogram gold bars for a photograph at the YLG Bullion International Co. headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016. Thailand's biggest buyer of gold will boost purchases by about 25 percent to 160 tons this year, said chief executive officer Pawan Nawawattanasub. Photographer: Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg

What had shaped as another ­record-breaking day for Australia’s booming gold stocks petered out yesterday as gold prices fell off their recent highs.

The price of bullion hit a new high of $2166.83 per ounce in Australian dollar terms on Monday amid the latest flare-up in trade relations between China and the US.

The Trump administration’s decision to label China a currency manipulator set the stage for ­another jump yesterday, but intervention by the People’s Bank of China took some momentum out of the price.

China’s central bank opted to set the exchange rate with the US dollar at a higher level than had been expected, triggering a pullback in the gold price.

The Australian dollar gold price has climbed almost 33 per cent in the past year, but pulled back by $20 an ounce yesterday to $2146.34. The US dollar gold price was also off slightly to less than $US1462 an ounce.

The softer prices sparked a pullback in gold shares that had reached new record peaks in recent weeks.

Local gold miners Evolution Mining and Saracen Mineral Holdings each hit new highs on Monday, with Northern Star Resources and Regis Resources both setting all-time highs late last month. Australia’s biggest gold producer, Newcrest Mining, this week hit its highest level since November 2011.

Most of the gold sector, however, ended yesterday’s trade under water.

Newcrest slipped 0.85 per cent to $35.90 a share, while Evolution (down 2.9 per cent to $5.10), Silver Lake Resources (down 2.6 per cent to $1.325), Resolute Mining (down 2.3 per cent to $1.895) and Saracen (down 1.8 per cent to $4.45) all fell.

Northern Star (up 1.8 per cent to $12.62) and Regis Resources (up 0.4 per cent to $5.63) both bucked the trend to close higher on the day.

Gold prices have been rising strongly in the past year thanks to its status as a haven during times of economic uncertainty and low interest rates, with both the rising tension between the US and China and a shift by central banks around the world towards interest rate cuts working in the metal’s favour.