By Nicholas Larkin and Glenys Sim Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Gold, little changed in London and New York today, may rise for a second day as a weaker dollar boosts demand for the precious metal as an alternative investment. The dollar fell as much as 0.5 percent against the euro after Group of Seven finance chiefs refrained from calling for measures to stop the U.S. currency’s decline. The metal, which has gained in six of the past seven weeks in London, tends to rise when the dollar weakens. “The dollar is slightly weaker,” Tobias Merath, head of commodity research at Credit Suisse Group AG in Zurich, said by phone. “The metal will eventually edge higher, as we have a bearish view on the dollar.” December gold futures rose 70 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $1,005 an ounce as of 8:26 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex division. Immediate-delivery bullion added $1.20, or 0.1 percent, to $1,004 an ounce in London. The metal rose to $1,004.25 in the morning “fixing” in London, used by some mining companies to sell production, from $1,003.50 at the afternoon fixing on Oct. 2. “It’s generally a good signal that we have managed to rise above $1,000,” Merath said. The G-7 met at the end of a week in which policy makers from France to Canada signaled concern that a sliding dollar risks impeding their recoveries from recession. Traders were bracing for stronger language to arrest the currency’s slump. Dollar Index Slides Gold has risen 0.9 percent in a month as the U.S. Dollar Index, a six-currency gauge of the greenback’s performance, lost 1.6 percent. The measure climbed on Oct. 2 to the highest level in more than three weeks after sliding to a 13-month low on Sept. 23. “A continued hold above $1,000 should signal that gold has strong fundamentals despite its recent behavior being influenced by short-term dollar fluctuations,” GoldCore Ltd., a brokerage in Dublin, said today in a note. Eleven of 24 traders, investors and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, or 46 percent, said gold will rise this week as a weakening dollar prompts investors to buy the metal. Nine forecast lower prices and four were neutral. Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange- traded fund backed by the metal, expanded 1.2 metric tons to 1,096.55 tons on Oct. 2, data on the company’s Web site showed. Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators trimmed their bets on rising New York futures in the week ended Sept. 29, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said last week. Net-long positions fell 2.3 percent to 231,386 contracts. U.K. Investors Castlestone Management Ltd. is offering European and U.K. investors exposure to physical gold through two of its bullion products without the risk of dollar movements affecting investments, the New York-based money manager said today in a statement. Investors’ euro- or sterling-denominated shares will track moves in the dollar-denominated shares. “We are more and more content to be long of gold in sterling and/or in euro terms rather than in U.S. dollar terms,” wrote Dennis Gartman, an economist and editor of the daily U.S.-based Gartman Letter. “In the past several weeks as gold has either held steady in U.S. dollar terms or has actually fallen, it has risen nicely in terms of sterling and has either held steady or has erred stronger in euro terms.” Among other precious metals for immediate delivery in London, silver gained 0.3 percent to $16.205 an ounce. Platinum dropped 0.1 percent to $1,279 an ounce and palladium was 0.1 percent higher at $296.75 an ounce.

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