Gold slides after Greece's unveils new debt repayment plans

Greece's decision to adopt a more accommodating stance to resolve its standoff with the European Union on repayment of debt saw gold prices fall on Tuesday.

Gold for April delivery fell 1.3%, to settle at $1,260.30 an ounce, while March silver futures gained 7 cents to $17.32 an ounce.

On Monday, Greece's new finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, said Greece aimed to swap outstanding debt for growth-related bonds, while running a budget surplus and clamping down on wealthy tax evaders.

Varoufakis described his plans as “smart debt engineering”, adding it would avoid to expose taxpayers in Germany and other creditor countries to a loss.

“Gold is one of those emotive markets where people get overly excited both at the top and bottom of the market and this generally ends badly,” said David Govett, precious metals analysts at Marex Spectron.

“If one can actually accept the fact that range trading quite often works, then all the better. In the absence of any negative or positive news, I will stick with that for the time being.”