Correction in spices after profit booking

MUMBAI: The gold futures fell on Thursday to $661.40 an ounce in Comex as traders locked in gains ahead of the quarter-end, despite tensions between Iran and the UK. Crude oil prices rebounded from early-session losses.

MCX clocked a turnover of Rs 3,663.55 crore on March 29 up to 5 pm. Total bullion volumes stood at Rs 1,375 crore.

MCX gold for April delivery was up 0.40% at Rs 9,389 per 10 gm, silver for May was up 0.14% at Rs 19,663 per kg.

April copper closed within the same range at Rs 296.10 per kg, and clocked volumes of Rs 533.77 crore, while zinc saw a 0.61% rise in price at Rs 140.20 per kg, trading volumes of Rs 221.06 crore.

Among agri-commodities correction was seen on Thursday in the spices counter that was down on account of profit booking. This also created pressure on other agri-commodities.

Total volume on NCDEX was Rs 3,770 crore at 5 pm. Active trades were high in among others chana, pepper, guarseeds, jeera, refined soya oil and soyabean.

Jeera near month contract was down by 1% at Rs 12,810 per quintal as against Rs 12,946 per quintal the previous day.

Pepper was also down by over a per cent at Rs 13,411 per quintal as against Rs 13,622 per quintal the previous day.

Amongst other commodities on NCDEX, chana, rapeseed and mustard were strong. Chana was marginally up at Rs 2,359 per quintal as against the previous close of Rs 2,355 per quintal on account of low arrivals and rumours of a crop damage.

Rapeseed mustard was marginally up at Rs 417 per 20 kg as against previous close of Rs 414 per 20 kg earlier.