TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The price of gold jumped to a new high on Tuesday, buoyed by news that India's central bank had bought 200 t of the yellow metal from the International Monetary Fund.

Gold futures rose to $1 088,50 in the US, despite a positive move by the US currency.

The previous high was reached on October 14, when gold touched $1 072/oz, according to Bloomberg News.

India's $6,7-billion purchase represents almost half of the total 403,3 metric tons that the IMF's executive board approved for sale in September.

The sale to India “is an important step toward achieving the objectives of the IMF’s limited gold sales program, which are to help put the fund’s finances on a sound long-term footing and enable us to step up much-needed concessional lending to the poorest countries,” IMF MD Dominique Strauss-Kahn commented in a statement.

Markets were seen as responding positively to news that the gold was not sold on the open market, and speculation that the rest of the IMF gold sales will be conducted in the same way.

Central banks are expected to increase purchases of gold, to diversify their portfolios as the US dollar weakens.

In April, China announced that it had secretly increased its gold holdings by more than three quarters, and there is speculation that China could be interested in some of the remaining IMF gold earmarked for sale.