Gold advances as dollar dips

Spot gold was seen trading at $1,099.81 an ounce at 12.00 noon Singapore time while February delivery in New York was at $1,099.20 an ounce at the same time.

The precious metal, which touched an all-time high of $1,226.56 last month, slumped to a one-month low of $1,081.95 an ounce on Jan. 22.

Bullion hit a one-month low of $1,081.90 on Friday, although the dollar's decline provided some support.

The precious yellow metal was helped by US President Barack Obama's proposal to limit financial risk-taking.

Obama's plans to restrict banks or financial institutions from associating with a hedge fund or a private equity fund, which was unveiled on Thursday, caused stocks, the dollar and commodities to tumble.

The Dollar Index, a six-currency gauge of the greenback's strength, lost as much as 0.2 percent.

Spot platinum gained 0.8 percent to $1,561.50 an ounce, silver increased 0.7 percent to $17.1475 an ounce and palladium jumped 1.5 percent to $438.75 an ounce.

The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust said its holdings stood at 1,111.922 tones as of Jan. 22, unchanged from the previous business day.