• Stocks in London opened lower on Tuesday, with gold miners benefiting from a rise in the precious metal's price amid political tension in the Middle East and as investors remain cautious ahead of the UK general election on Thursday.
• The risk aversion gave a boost to the gold price, with the metal quoted at USD1,289.42 an ounce on Tuesday.
• "We were already expecting this week to be highly volatile...and it was expected that investors would run towards the safe-haven trade, but the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Qatar has taken this trade to another level altogether," said Think Markets analyst Ding Yao.
• A group Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia cut ties with Qatar on Monday, accusing the country of supporting terrorism in Yemen and Syria. Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, alongside Saudi Arabia, closed their borders and called on Qataris to leave within two weeks. Yemen later joined the action.
• A minute of silence is due to be observed in the UK at 1100 BST on Tuesday in memory of the victims of the London terror attack that occurred on Saturday.
• Police on Monday named two of three men who were shot dead after vehicle and stabbing attacks. The Metropolitan Police published photographs and details of the two, saying they were from Barking in east London, but cautioned that "formal identification has yet to take place".
• Detectives believe one of the men was Khuram Shazad Butt, 27, a British citizen who was born in Pakistan. The second suspected attacker was believed to be Rachid Redouane, 30, who had "claimed to be Moroccan and Libyan" and used a different name and date of birth.
• These two factors, together with the proximity of the UK general election on Thursday, were making investors cautious at the start of trade Tuesday.
• India's gold imports in May surged fourfold from a year ago to 103 tonnes as jewellers increased purchases to replenish inventory and stock up ahead of a new national sales tax, provisional data from consultancy GFMS showed.
• Russia's largest gold producer Polyus on Monday announced its intention to conduct offering on the London Stock Exchange and the Moscow Exchange.
Russia produced 68.68 tonnes of gold in the first four months of 2017, up from 67.75 tonnes in the same period last year, the finance ministry said in a statement on Monday.
• China, the world's biggest gold consumer, may boost imports through Hong Kong by about half this year as local investors seek to protect their wealth from currency risks, a slowing property market and volatile stocks, according to the Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society.
• Mainland China is set to import about 1,000 metric tons from the territory in 2017, said Haywood Cheung, president of the century-old exchange in Hong Kong which trades physical gold and silver. That compares with net purchases of 647 tons last year and would be the highest since 2013, data from the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department compiled by Bloomberg show.
Reference: Reuters, Bloomberg, Alliance New
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