Spot buying of gold & silver picks up in Indian markets

MUMBAI: Tracking overseas spot prices, gold and silver closed down 3.1% and 5.4% respectively in Mumbai. The fall boosted wedding season purchases, said Mumbai and Kolkata based jewellers.

According to Bombay Bullion Association, gold shed Rs 845 per 10 gm from the previous session to close at Rs 26,570 while silver shed Rs 2,815 a kilo to close at Rs 49,140. The prices exclude the 1% value-added tax. "Demand rose recently after gold came off from its Rs 29,500 highs over the past 15 days.

Thursday's fall has boosted spot buying demand," Kumar Jain, a retail jeweller in Mumbai's Zaveri Bazaar wholesale gold market said. Seconding him, Harshad Ajmera, proprietor of JJ Gold House said, "People are coming in droves to pick up jewellery since prices have fallen sharply on Thursday," he said.

On the futures market, gold was down 2.3% at Rs 26,649 per 10 gms while silver shed Rs 1,734 from Wednesday's closing at Rs 48,902 at the time of writing. The futures market reflected the mood among overseas investors who traded in a thin market on Comex. Retail presence on the local futures gold counter was down on anticipation of a correction, said Naveen Mathur, associate director commodities and currencies at Angel Broking and Gnanasekar Thiagarajan of research company Commtrendz.