Gold rises above $1,300 on stimulus outlook, rising oil prices

London, Jul 22. Gold today advanced above USD 1,300 an ounce to a one-month high as speculation that the Federal Reserve will maintain stimulus and rising oil prices spurred demand for the metal. Gold rose 1.5 per cent to USD 1,316.10 an ounce. Prices reached USD 1,323.23, the highest since June 20. Silver also rose 2.1 per cent to USD 19.92 an ounce. Bullion rose 0.8 per cent last week, capping the first back-to-back weekly gains since May, after Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke indicated that it's too early to decide whether to begin scaling back bond purchases in September. Gold slid 21 per cent this year, wiping USD 58.1 billion from the value of gold exchange-traded product holdings, after some investors lost faith in the metal as a store of value. Gold ETP holdings fell 2.9 tons to 1,976 tons on July 19, the lowest since May 2010. The 10.2 tons sold last week was the least since May.