Money managers increased their net long gold positions on COMEX for the third consecutive week, data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed Monday, extending the 14-month high bullish position recorded the previous week.
Net long positions in gold held by managed-money investors rose 1.8% to 129,777 contracts in the week to March 8, the highest level since January 2015, CFTC data showed.
Strong investor support has added weight to gold's bull run this year, up around 20% since the start of 2016.
"This group of investors [money managers], which is seen as having a short-term orientation, is therefore likely to have prevented any more marked decline in the gold price during the period under review -- when the price dropped by 2.3%," Commerzbank said in its daily note Monday.
Gold is trading around $1,240/oz Monday morning, down $30-$35 on last week's highs, as the US dollar recovers from weakness.
Gold jumped last week on lower interest rate expectations from the US Federal Reserve, while the dollar fell to a one-month low against the euro.
Inflows into SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded product, totaled 20.21 mt for the week ending Friday, up from additions of 5.65 mt a week earlier, according to data released by the company Monday.
Additions into the fund, which represents nearly half the volume of gold-backed ETFs, in 2016 now total 176.6 mt, higher than 2014 and 2015 outflows combined. Total assets in the fund are the highest since December 2013.
Meanwhile, net long positions in silver were up 2.4% at a 21-week high of 50,756 contracts, according to CFTC data.
Platinum was down 7.8% at 16,854 contracts and palladium was 10.4% higher at 6,813 contracts.
