Gold prices fell nearly three dirhams per gram in the UAE on the first trading day of the week.

In the UAE, the 24K variant of the precious metal was trading at Dh286.75 per gram at 9 am on Monday as compared to Dh289.5 per gram at the close of the markets on Friday.

While 22K, 22K and 18K fell to Dh265.5, Dh257.0 and Dh220.25 per gram, respectively.

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Spot gold was down at $2,369.69 per ounce at 9 am UAE time, down 0.71 per cent.

Despite the drop in prices, the yellow metal prices are quite high after a rally over the past few months, reaching an all-time high earlier this month due to aggressive buying by central banks in February.

“Central bank buying seems to have become the dominant driver of the gold market lately. The World Gold Council reported that central banks continued to add to their gold reserves in February, which pushed gold prices to new record highs. We generally share the view that central bank buying should stay strong and supportive of structurally higher gold prices, considering ongoing geopolitical tensions and a desire to be less dependent on the US dollar,” said commodity analysts at Swiss bank Julius Bar.

“However, we do not expect a constant increase in buying but rather a volatile sideways trend. In fact, the data published last week shows that this year’s volumes are well below last year’s,” said analysts.

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