LONDON: Gold fell by more than 1 percent on Monday, marking its biggest tumble in over a month, after the market’s favoured French presidential candidate won the first round of the country’s election, easing concerns about a potential political shock. Centrist Emmanuel Macron took a big step towards the French presidency on Sunday by winning the first round of voting, with the latest opinion polls showing him as strong favourite to beat far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the final run-off. The news represented a huge defeat for anti-European Union forces on the right and left of French politics, sent European shares and the euro vaulting higher and sparked a sell-off in safe-haven bullion. Spot gold was down 1.1 percent at $1,269.61 an ounce by 1148 GMT, having touched its lowest in nearly two weeks at $1,265.90. US gold futures were down 1.4 percent at $1,271.30. “For the moment some of the tail risk in the form of a shock win by any of the other candidates has been averted. We see more downside in the very short term, leading up to the (French election) run-off in two weeks,” said Societe Generale analyst Robin Bhar.