Bullion keeps shine as banks lose lustre

The sharemarket closed lower after following a weak US lead, with selling across the board.
The ASX 200 fell 45.9 points to 4578 and the All Ordinaries 44.7 points to 4531.6.
Banking and mining stocks were among the worst hit but gold stocks defied the gloom as the gold price hit new highs.
US stocks fell on Wall Street on Wednesday as financial and home building shares fell amid concerns about rising interest rates, while the fall in the oil price also hit US energy stocks.
The Dow Jones index fell 45.95 points to 10,810.91 while the S&P 500 fell 6.33 to 1257.37.
In Australia all major banks were down sharply. Westpac fell 43c to $21.62, National Australia Bank 34c to $31.74, the Commonwealth 46c to $40.74 and ANZ 42c to $23.03.
Sean Fenton at Jenkins Investment Management said the banks had "become a bit expensive relative to the rest of the market".
Bank of Queensland fell 10c to $14.30. The bank said the current year has started strongly with lending well ahead compared to the same time last year.
Mining stocks were also sold off with BHP Billiton slipping 29c to $21.56.
Rio Tinto fell 74c to $63.10 after its board gave the go-ahead for the $1.2 billion expansion of the Argyle diamond mine in Western Australia.
Iluka Resources slumped 30c to $8.10 after announcing it will close its unprofitable mineral sands mines in Florida and Georgia because of low-grade ore and higher fuel costs.
IG Markets head of sales David Skilton said the market had taken its lead from weak markets in the US and Asia and the fall in the oil price had also had an effect.
Oil and gas stocks were hit by the dip in the oil price. Woodside Petroleum fell $1.28 to $35.80, Santos 29c to $11.50, Oil Search 4c to $3.63 and Hardman Resources 4c to $1.88.
PBL fell 11c to $16.48 and John Fairfax 4c to $3.90.
Qantas rose 2c to $3.74 after saying its budget airline, Jetstar, would expand into long-haul international flights by January.
Retailers weren't exempt from the selling, Coles Myer falling 11c to $9.70 and Woolworths down 8c to $16.67.
Westfield Group fell 4c to $17.01 after it announced plans to revive Sydney's CBD as a shopping destination with a $600 million retail and office project.
Units in new investment fund Macquarie Winton Global Opportunities Trust more than doubled in value from a listing price of $1 when it began trading yesterday but eased after a trading error was discovered by the stock exchange, closing at $1.14.
Ten Network fell 6c to $3.30. Merrill Lynch analyst Patrick Russell cut his recommendation to "sell" after Ten reported a 9.5 per cent drop in first-quarter profit on falling ratings.
"We see little prospect for a turnaround in subsequent quarters," Mr Russell said. The "worst is still to come".
The price of gold closed at $US518.50 an ounce, up $US5.60 on Wednesday's local close.
Newcrest jumped 43c to $21.91, Newmont was up 20c to $6.64, Lihir rose 6c to $2.17 and AngloGold Ashanti gained 35c to close at $12.25.
The top traded stock was telecoms software house OBJ with 55.02 million shares worth $3.74 million changing hands as the stock rose 0.7c to 6.5c.