After falling to as low as $1,179.40 an ounce on early Friday, Gold futures rebounded to settle at slightly more than $1,223 a troy ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange's (NYME's) Comex division on the last trading day of the week, month as well as quarter.

Gold for August delivery regained $12.10, or 1 per cent, to settle at $1,223.70 per troy ounce on the Comex division, after investors who had bet on lower prices closed out those bets on the June quarter's final trading day.

During the quarter ended June, Gold prices slipped a whopping 23 per cent. It is the precious yellow metal's weakest performance since the United States' government put an end to the convertibility of dollars to gold in the year
1971.

Investors are worried that the US Federal Reserve will cut down its $85 billion per month bond-buying program. The rolling back of the central bank's bond-buying program, which was started to provide a boost to the economy in wake of global economic crisis, will make gold a less attractive investment option for investors.

Frank McGhee, of Integrated Brokerage Services, said, "Gold has definitively fallen out of favor. The rotation out of gold and into equities accelerated through most of the quarter."

At time of previous steep fall in gold prices in April, buyers in India and China - the world's biggest gold purchasers - immediately snapped up gold jewelry, coins and bars. But the most recent price fall failed to attract buyers.

Stronger global equities markets have also prompted investors to shift their investments from gold to shares.