Gold prices fell sharply, breaking the psychological level of $ 1600, and reached its lowest level in the last ten days, as it became known that an agreement on Cyprus. The agreement involves the restructuring of the country's largest lender, Bank of Cyprus, the closure of a major bank Laiki, taxing deposits that exceed 100 thousand euros, in exchange for a package of assistance to 10 billion euros. It is possible that depositors of Bank of Cyprus, deposits of more than 100 thousand euros, suffer losses of 30%, but there is still no information about how many lost customers Laiki. Ministry of Finance of Germany Wolfgang Schäuble, speaking at a news conference in Berlin, approved the agreement on the rescue of Cyprus, saying that the imposition of higher taxes on large depositors was the right decision. He also called for the reopening of the Cypriot banks, noting that the national parliaments of the EU should hold a final vote on the rescue package in the third week aprelya.otinvestory

Nevertheless, investors remained cautious amid fears that an agreement to rescue could set a precedent for possible future rescue big eurozone countries with troubled banking sector.

Traders note that after breaking the strong technical support at $ 1,600, the metal is now vulnerable to a further decline, and the next support level is around $ 1550 - $ 1560.

Also pressured gold has a continuous outflow of gold exchange-traded funds. Note that stocks SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold fund, decreased by 0.9 tons, compared with the previous session, reaching 1,221.26, which is the lowest level since July 2011. However, hedge funds and money managers increased their bets on the purchase of gold by 63 percent for the week ending March 19.

April futures price of gold on the COMEX fell to 1598.00 dollars per ounce.