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Wednesday October 7, 10:30 PM
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Kitco launches index to measure "real" gold price
By Jan Harvey
LONDON (Reuters) - Montreal-based gold dealer Kitco has launched an index tracking gold in a variety of currencies, that it says will enable investors to monitor prices independently from the U.S. dollar.
The Kitco Gold Index, launched late on Tuesday, follows the price of gold with the same basket of currencies used for the dollar index -- a mechanism that measures the U.S. unit against major currencies.
The components used for the dollar index are the Japanese yen, euro, sterling, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona and Swiss franc.
Spot gold and U.S. gold futures, both of which are priced in dollars, have gained ground in league with the U.S. currency's losses. Gold hit a record high earlier on Wednesday at $1,048.20 per ounce .
But gold priced in other currencies has seen nothing like the same sorts of gains. While the precious metal has gained almost 20 percent in dollar terms so far this year, gold priced in Australian dollars has fallen 5.6 percent .
Kitco said its index aims to determine whether the value of gold is actual, a reflection of changes in the dollar value, or a combination of both.
"When you take the dollar out of the equation, which this basket does, and you start looking at gold in the six-currency basket, you realise that this has been a dollar story," Kitco senior analyst Jon Nadler told Reuters on the sidelines of the Commodities Week Europe conference in London.
"We lose focus on real value or fair value by simply looking at the $1,000 situation."
(Reporting by Jan Harvey; Editing by Veronica Brown and William Hardy)
