The price of gold increases the third consecutive session on the background of increasing demand in Asia, according to data exchanges .

"A small amount of trades in the western areas indicates that the gold recovered in the price due to the increase in physical demand in Asia ," - said the agency MarketWatch publisher NicholsOnGold.com Jeffrey Nichols .

The experts believe that the stock markets will greatly affect the price of the precious metal . " If the stock markets will be held in a robust , it will negatively affect gold ," - he added.

Some traders say that , in their opinion, the fund managers will not make major changes in their portfolios before the end of the year , in connection with which stocks can continue to rise .

In the long term negative impact on gold may affect factors such as the global economic recovery , supported by macro data in countries such as the United States , as well as further reduction of the quantitative easing program the Fed USA.

On Thursday, data released , according to which the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits in the U.S. in the week December 15-21, declined for the first time in three weeks on 42,000 and adjusted for seasonal variation was 338,000 . Decline was greater than expected by economists .

Cost February gold futures on the COMEX today rose to $ 1218.50 per ounce.