By Nicholas Larkin and Glenys Sim Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Gold, little changed in London today, may climb as a weaker dollar and the metal’s drop to a three-week low prompt investors to buy. Platinum and palladium declined. The dollar slid as much as 0.6 percent against the euro on concern a U.S. proposal to curb banks’ bets with their own capital will deter investors from buying assets in the world’s largest economy. Bullion, which yesterday fell to the lowest price since Dec. 30, usually moves inversely to the greenback. “Yesterday we had a lot of pressure on gold, and overnight we’ve seen some physical demand,” said Afshin Nabavi, a senior vice president at bullion refiner MKS Finance SA in Geneva. “The physical market thinks these prices are fantastic to buy at. The dollar is also a little bit lower.” Gold for immediate delivery added $1.55, or 0.1 percent, to $1,095.50 an ounce at 11:04 a.m. local time. The metal is down 3.1 percent this week, headed for its biggest slide in six weeks. Bullion for February delivery was 0.7 percent lower at $1,095.30 on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex division. The metal declined to $1,096.50 an ounce in the morning “fixing” in London, used by some mining companies to sell production, from $1,108.25 at yesterday’s afternoon fixing. Spot prices are 11 percent below a record $1,226.56 set on Dec. 3. Less Risk-Taking U.S. President Barack Obama advocated limiting the size and trading activities of financial institutions as a way to reduce risk-taking and prevent another financial crisis. The proposals will be part of an overhaul of regulations and would prohibit banks from running proprietary trading operations or investing in hedge funds and private-equity funds. Bullion may fall next week as the dollar’s strength erodes demand for the metal as an alternative investment, according to 12 of 17 traders, investors and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, or 71 percent. Four forecast higher prices and one was neutral. Gold imports by India, the biggest consumer, dropped 18 percent last year as record prices cooled demand from jewelers and spurred more recycling of old ornaments and other used metal. Purchases this year will “certainly” exceed the 343 metric tons bought in 2009, said Suresh Hundia, president of the Bombay Bullion Association Ltd. Sales of scrap may fall to between 60 tons and 100 tons, a level deemed normal, from an estimated 200 tons last year, Hundia said. Silver, Platinum Among other precious metals for immediate delivery in London, silver added 0.2 percent to $17.43 an ounce. Platinum fell as much as 3 percent to $1,547.65 an ounce, the lowest price since Jan. 8, and was last at $1,553.90. Palladium dropped as much as 4.5 percent to a one-week low of $431 an ounce and was last at $435.25. Palladium assets in European and Australian products of ETF Securities Ltd. dropped 2.6 percent yesterday to 662,776 ounces, according to figures on the company’s Web site today. The company’s platinum product that listed earlier this month in the U.S. held 144,924 ounces and the palladium product had assets of 194,977 ounces as of Jan. 20, its Web site showed. The “tremendous amount of interest” in the new products may slow, Nicholas Brooks, the company’s head of research and investment strategy, said today at a conference in London. “A lot of what we’ve seen is pent-up demand and it will probably start to level off.” Palladium climbed for six sessions in a row through Jan. 20, adding 11 percent. Platinum closed on Jan. 19 at the highest price in 17 months in London. To contact the reporters on this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net; Nicholas Larkin in London at nlarkin1@bloomberg.net.

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