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Bengaluru — Gold hits its lowest in nearly two weeks yesterday after centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron won the first round of French presidential election, boosting stocks and sparking a sell-off in the safe-haven bullion.

Spot gold was down 0,7 percent at $1 275,46 per ounce by 3.42am GMT, after falling to a low of $1 265,90 earlier in the session. US gold futures were down nearly 1 percent  at $1 277,30 per ounce.

“Gold prices have fallen sharply this morning due to the improvement in risk sentiment,” said OCBC analyst Barnabas Gan.

“Macron and Marine le Pen have emerged as the two key winners of the French elections. It does remove some of the suspense and risk-off sentiment we saw late last week.”

In France, Macron took a big step towards the presidency on Sunday by winning the first round of voting and qualifying for a May 7 runoff alongside far-right leader Le Pen.

“With Macron showing good results, the safe-haven buying dried up pretty quickly and I think this is the reason behind gold selling off this morning,” said ANZ analyst Daniel Hynes.  — Reuters