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Gold hits record high

LONDON - Gold hit record highs on Friday and silver its strongest since early 1980 as the dollar slid on the prospect of a US government shutdown, with eurozone debt concerns and unrest in North Africa further supporting buying.

Spot gold rose as high as $1,472.96 an ounce and was bid at $1,469.40 an ounce at 1335 GMT, against $1,457.45 late in New York on Thursday.

Silver was bid at $40.20 an ounce against $39.51, having earlier risen as high as $40.28.

Friday’s slide in the dollar added fuel to a rally that has already taken gold to a series of record highs this year. Gold has hit a series of peaks since January as violence across the Middle East and North Africa sparked safe-haven buying and pushed oil prices to multi-year highs.

Meanwhile, interest in gold-backed exchange-traded funds picked up, with holdings of the largest, New York’s SPDR Gold Trust, increasing by just over 11 tonnes on Thursday, their biggest one-day rise since January 21.

Holdings of the COMEX Gold Trust rose by 260,000 ounces on Thursday, while those of the Sprott Physical Gold Trust increased by 6.29 per cent to 1,024,322.0 ounces between Wednesday and Thursday.

Meanwhile, holdings of the largest silver ETF, the iShares Silver Trust, rose to a fresh record at 11,192.8 tonnes on Thursday. Silver is becoming increasingly expensive compared to gold as prices of both assets rise. The gold:silver ratio — the number of silver ounces needed to buy an ounce of gold — fell to a 28-year low near 36 on Friday.

Among other precious metals, platinum was at $1,802.74 an ounce against $1,781.10, while palladium was at $793.58 against $775.03.