Gold traded flat in morning trades Friday ahead of United States nonfarm payroll data which may give Federal Reserve's stance on interest rate hike and on weak investment demand, said analysts.
"Gold trades flat ahead of NFP data while ETF outflows showed weaker investor interest which put pressure on the prices," said Madhavi Mehta an analyst with Kotak Commodities.
Prices of the yellow metal were flat as investors are cautious ahead nonfarm payroll data unemployment rate data to be released later today.
United States jobless claims dropped indicating improving job scenario in the world's biggest economy.
Jobless claims came at 270,000 for the week ended Jul 31 lower than analysts' estimate of 273,000 and 267,000 a week ago, a government data showed.
On Tuesday, Dennis Lockhart, Federal Reserve President of Atlanta expressed his support for an interest rate hike in September.
Lockhart, a voting member of Federal Open Market Committee this year, said to Wall Street Journal that it would take 'significant deterioration' in the United States economy for him not to support a September rate hike.
In its latest policy review last month, the central bank reiterated its resolve to hike rates later this year as the economy was poised for expansion and labour market was expected to improve further. A pick-up in US economy, the world's biggest, augurs well for emerging market especially for exporting companies.
The central bank said it was seeing 'solid' job gains and maintained its view that economic activity was expanding 'moderately', with the risks to the outlook 'nearly balanced'.
However, subdued investment demand following sharp drop in SPDR Gold Trust holding put pressure on the yellow metal prices , said analysts.
Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's biggest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell to 667.93 tons on Thursday compared to 670.62 tons on Wednesday, its lowest level since September 2008.
At 10:50AM gold for October delivery rose 0.09% to Rs 24,762 per 10 grams on the MCX. The yellow metal traded as high as at Rs 24,739 per 10 grams on the MCX.
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