Gold down on global cues

MUMBAI: The domestic gold market was left without direction as the international market slid to a five-week low. MCX gold for April delivery closed at Rs 9,249 per 10 gram, down Rs 0.91. March silver closed at Rs 18,388 per kg, down Rs 2.41.

The combined bullion contracts registered a turnover of Rs 2,309.05 crore. Among metals, copper contracts registered a turnover of Rs 695.22 crore with 26,321,000 kg as volumes while zinc registered a turnover Rs 45,747 crore with 31,545 tonnes as volumes. Copper for April delivery closed at Rs 263.60, down Rs 1.93. March zinc closed at Rs 145.60 a kg, down Rs 2.31.

In energy, crude oil contracts showed a turnover of Rs 463.69 crore with open interest of 1,201,200 bbl. March crude oil closed at Rs 2,692, down Rs 1.14. MCX recorded a total turnover of Rs 4,532.61 crore (single sided) at 5.45 pm (session I) on March 5. Due to sun outage MCX has extended the trading timings only for agri-commodities from 5.00 pm to 5.45 pm from Monday to Fridays.

Among agri-commodities on NCDEX, the action was high among in jeera, chilli, pepper, guarseed, channa, and soya oil. Jeera was up as arrivals are thin this week due to celebration of Holi. Jeera for March delivery was up 3.8% to Rs 11,356.8 per quintal from Rs 10,940.3 on Saturday.. The open interest was 7,812 tonne. The April contract was up to Rs 11,676 from Rs 11,243 per quintal. The open interest was 17,643 tonne.

Pepper was quoting lower by 5.2% on Monday at Rs 12,062 per quintal from Rs 12,733 on Saturday. Open interest was 11, 025 tonne. Chana for March delivery traded at Rs 2,029 marginally higher than Saturday’s Rs 2,014 per quintal. The total volumes on NCDEX were Rs 2,802 crore up to 5 pm.