By Kevin Plumberg
HONG KONG, Nov 3 (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar slid on Tuesday, especially against Asian currencies, pushing gold prices near record highs, while stock markets were steady ahead of several big central bank meetings this week.

The Australian dollar rose, staying above $0.90 ahead of a decision on interest rates at 0330 GMT. Most dealers were expecting a quarter percentage point increase in the base rate…

The Federal Reserve will kick off a two-day policy meeting on Tuesday, after which it is expected to keep rates unchanged…

Gold is up 21 percent this year, and will likely keep its record of not having a down year since 2000.

The International Monetary Fund said on Monday it sold 200 tonnes of gold to the Reserve Bank of India for $6.8 billion, quietly executing half of a long-planned bullion sale that had threatened to slow gold’s rally.

While the IMF’s plan to sell some of its gold holdings had been flagged for a year before it was formally approved in September, the speed of the deal and the buyer were a surprise for traders, who had expected China — not India — to be the leading contender as Beijing diversifies its vast reserves.

“The fact that they’ve sold the gold to India would suggest there’s going to be fewer official sales by the IMF on the market. So that might be a positive theme for the gold price,” said David Moore, commodities strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. [source]

RS Comment: Not wanting to overstate the residual spirit of international cooperation in the wake of extraordinary multilateral monetary measures employed by the central banks of the world to mutually contend with the current financial crisis, but given China’s superior access to domestic supply [having become the world's top gold mining country], the market’s surprise should arguably be somewhat lessened that this first sizable tranche of the IMF’s 403 tonne gold reallocation went to India instead…

R.