Commodity Online
SINGAPORE : Gold and silver prices continued their southward journey in Asian trade Friday as the dollar surge eroded the appeal of these precious metals as an alternative investment.

Gold for immediate delivery fell 0.6% to $728.45 an ounce at 9:19 a.m. in Singapore. Silver for immediate delivery was down 0.2% at $9.9613 an ounce

December-delivery gold fell 0.7% at $727.30 an ounce in after-hours electronic trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold for October delivery in Tokyo declined 3.4% at 2,263 yen a gram ($727 an ounce) at 10:22 a.m. local time.

The dollar advanced for the second day against a weighted basket of six major currencies after the Bank of England and the European Central Bank slashed benchmark interest rates to stimulate slumping economies.

The ECB reduced its main refinancing rate by 50 basis points to 3.25%. The BOE slashed its key rate by 1.5 percentage points to 3%. Switzerland's central bank lowered its benchmark rate to 2% from 2.5%.

The metal last month dropped 17% as the dollar climbed 11% against the euro.