Gold gains, follows oil higher

Gold prices followed crude oil higher Thursday on renewed worries about a possible conflict in the Middle East after Iran carried out more long-range missile tests in the Persian Gulf, while declines in equities markets also pushed metals prices higher.

August gold was up $13.40 to $942 per troy ounce in New York while September silver added 14 cents to $18.31 per troy ounce and October platinum gained $26.40 to $1,998.40 per troy ounce.

Most base metals were also higher on the session, although tin dropped $100 to $22,800 per tonne in London and at last report September copper was down 2 cents to $3.72 per pound at last report in New York.

Earlier in London, however, three-month copper added $30 to $8,230 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange but gains were limited by new data showing demand from China down in June.

Aluminium added $100 to close at $3,290 per tonne on news from China that the top 20 smelters there will cut their output by up to 10 percent beginning this month, potentially removing up to 1.2 million tonnes per year from the market in order to save energy.

Current LME inventories of aluminium stand at about 1.08 million tonnes.

Zinc prices added $125 to $1,990 per tonne while lead was $194 higher to $1,984 per tonne and nickel gained $450 to $21,900 per tonne.