LONDON: Gold in 2014 will not push much lower from current levels around $1,250, although investors hoping last year’s 28 per cent battering will bring a bounce back face disappointment, consensus estimates in a Reuters poll show.

Gold last year hit its lowest since August 2010 at $1,180.71 an ounce. That blew away expectations of analysts polled this time last year, who had forecast a modest 6 per cent rise from 2012’s average.

A Reuters poll of 37 analysts conducted in the last month returned an average gold price forecast of $1,235 an ounce for this year, while in 2015 prices are seen rising only marginally, to $1,260 an ounce.

While that suggests heavy selling of the metal may have ended, it offers little comfort to investors looking for gains after last year’s crash, its biggest annual loss in 32 years.