London: Gold hit a one-week high above $950 an ounce yesterday as a falling dollar and strong oil prices encouraged investors to shift money back into the market after last week's heavy sell-off.

Gold rose to a high of $950.20 an ounce and was quoted at $947.30/$948.20 at 1459 GMT, against $934.60/$935.40 late in New York on Tuesday.

"We saw some pretty big falls last week and there has certainly been an increase in buying over the last day or so from investors who think those falls were overdone," said Daniel Hynes, metals strat-egist at Merrill Lynch.

"I think we are going to start seeing a little bit of a consolidation period, with gold trading around $1,000 in the next couple of weeks. I certainly expect to see the long-term upward trend continue after that."

Gold hit a record of $1,030.80 on March 17 before a broad sell-off in commodities dragged down prices to a one-month low of $904.65, briefly hurting investor confidence in the metal, seen as an alternative investment and a hedge against inflation.