Gold rises modestly as Fed, BOJ keep easy-money policies

"World markets have been boosted by the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan's soothing words and policies continuing [...] cheap money policies," said Mark O'Byrne, analyst at GoldCore in emailed comments.

Gold for April delivery ended up $1.70, or 0.2%, at $1,124.20 an ounce at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The SPRD Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD) , the largest exchange-traded fund backed by gold, however, fell 0.7%.

Holdings in the trust remained for the fourth session at 1,115.51 metric tons.

The precious metal rose even as the dollar posted slight gains earlier on before eventually slipping into negative territory. The dollar index (INDEX:DXY) , which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of six major currencies, recently traded around the flat line. (more)