By Kim Kyoungwha Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Gold is poised for a fourth weekly advance as a declining dollar bolsters demand for the precious metal as an alternative investment. Bullion traded near the highest since March 2008 as deficit spending by governments around the world erodes the value of paper currencies relative to gold and commodities. Gold has risen 13 percent this year, while the Dollar Index, a six- currency gauge of the dollar’s value, shed 5.6 percent. “Customers remain positive about the longer-term prospects for gold, but are concerned that following the recent run-up in gold that speculative positions are a little overblown,” John Reade, a strategist with UBS AG, wrote in a note. Gold for immediate delivery rose as much as 0.2 percent to $998.30 an ounce, before trading little changed at $995.70 at 8:40 a.m. in Singapore. The metal, which touched $1,007.70 an ounce on Sept. 8, closed last week at $994.40. Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange traded fund backed by bullion, were unchanged at 1,077.63 metric tons on Sept. 10, according to figures on the company’s Web site. To be sure, gold’s rally to more than $1,000 an ounce may not be sustainable, according to Karen Jones, a technical analyst at Commerzbank AG. “The daily relative-strength index has turned lower and the near-term risk is that we slide back,” Jones wrote, referring to a measure that some investors and analysts use to indicate whether an asset is poised to gain or fall. Among other precious metals for immediate delivery, silver dropped 0.2 percent to $16.64 an ounce, platinum fell 0.3 percent to $1,279.75 an ounce and palladium rose 0.3 percent to $292.25 an ounce.

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