Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 22 (Xinhua) Affected by multiple factors such as investors' profit-taking, the international gold price fell sharply by more than 5% on the 21st, the biggest single-day drop in five years.

On the same day, the international spot gold price fell about 5.3% to US$4,123.85 per ounce, plunging 6.3% during the session, the largest decline in more than 10 years.

Analysts said that the continued sharp rise in gold prices in the early stage led to an increase in investors' profit-taking operations, the easing of market concerns about international trade tensions, and the rebound of investors' risk appetite were the main reasons for the sharp drop in gold prices.

Bloomberg reports that as investors worry that the recent historic rise in precious metals prices has led to its value being overvalued, gold has suffered the worst sale in years.

Tony Sickamore, market analyst at IG, said the gold market continued to rise significantly in the previous period and was severely overbought.

Since late August, the international gold price has opened up room for upside after several months of consolidation, rising from around US $3,300 per ounce to more than US $4,000. Geopolitical changes and intensified global economic uncertainty, interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, and gold purchases by global central banks are important driving factors for this round of gold strength. At the beginning of this week, the international gold price once rose to $4,381.21 per ounce, a record high. Since the beginning of this year, international gold prices have risen by about 60%.

Some analysts believe that the long-term driving factors that push gold prices to record highs continuously still exist, and it is expected that gold prices will resume rising in the next few months.