Gold held broadly steady on Monday just shy of $995 per ounce, consolidating stellar gains last week that took it close to the $1,000 psychological level, with buyers encouraged by dollar weakness. Silver took support from gold's strength and gains in benchmark base metal copper, hitting a high of $16.34 an ounce, its firmest since August 2008.

South Africa's miners' union said on Monday its members at Impala Platinum had ended a strike at the company's biggest mine. The union also said on Monday it had agreed in principle to a wage offer from Anglo Platinum and would recommend the offer to members who will vote on it in a week's time.

The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust, said holdings stood at 1,077.63 tonnes as of Sept. 7, unchanged from Friday.

The Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers said over the weekend they would not remove economic stimulus until the global recovery was well entrenched.

India's August to October festival season is seeing a rise in gold buying that is expected to increase with major festivals Dussera, Diwali and Dhanteras coming up in the weeks ahead, when consumers buy gold for auspicious reasons.

India's physical gold prices were almost unchanged on poor demand on Monday as traders avoided buying following the start of a period considered inauspicious for purchases, dealers said.

Money managers held a net long position of 150,038 contracts in gold on Sept. 1, according to a new report from the U. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission aimed at providing more transparency in the markets.

Gold is trading near the psychological mark of $1000. We expect gold prices to cross this $1000 mark and then head for a slight correction. We see any major rise in prices as a selling opportunity for the day. Silver looks good for the day. We recommend going long in Silver.