Gold price reaches crossroads, heading downward: expert

DUBAI (Xinhua) - Head of precious metals at Dubai- based bank Emirates NBD, Gerhard Schubert said Saturday that the gold prices' loss of $4 billion against the previous week does not even begin to tell half of the story.

The price of the yellow metal closed Friday at $1,577 per ounce, down 0.25 percent week on week.

In his weekly published commentary on global precious metals markets, Schubert described the size of investment outflows from gold exchange traded funds was not only surprising, "but this might also indicate a seismic shift in investment behavior."

Schubert said "The sentiment of the market is shifting toward the downside, but it is, in my view, too early to predict the end of the bull run."

Gold, considered a save haven investment in times of crises, lost 7 percent in value in the last six months amid progress in the Euro zone debt crisis and reduced tensions between Iran and the United States on Tehran's nuclear energy project.