SINGAPORE (Commodity Online) : Gold fell sharply in Asian trade Thursday mainly on IMF’s announcement to sell 191.3 metric tons of gold on the open market rather than to central banks.

Spot gold was seen trading at $1100.78 an ounce, down 0.5 percent from Wednesday’s close of $1106 an ounce. It had hit a peak of $1,126.85 an ounce on Wednesday ahead of the IMF statement, its highest since Jan. 20.

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U.S. gold futures for April delivery was at $1101.21 an ounce at the same time compared with Wednesday’s $1120.10 an ounce on the COMEX division prior to the IMF news.

Analysts said the precious yellow metal fell after the dollar firmed on upbeat economic data and commodity-linked currencies slipped on news the IMF planned to sell more Gold in the open market.

The IMF said it would begin phased open-market sales of the remaining 191.3 tonnes of gold under a programme launched last year to raise new resources for lending.

It kept open the possibility that central banks could still buy some of the gold directly.

The fund announced last year it would sell a total of 403.3 tonnes of gold, about one-eighth of its total stock, in an effort to diversify its sources of income and step up low-cost lending to poor countries.

Meanwhile, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust said its holdings stood steady at 1,109.424 tonnes as of Feb. 17 from the previous day.

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