The precious metals, gold and silver, took a knock at the domestic bullion market on Saturday and plunged to their fresh multi—month lows on emergence of frantic profit—taking by speculators and investors ignited by a global commodity sell—off.
The fall, mainly attributed to global spill—over where the broad based commodities bore the brunt of investors’ panic selling where the gold nosedived below the $1,700 an ounce following encouraging US macro—economic data amid fears over an imminent reversal of the Federal Reserves’ stimulus measures.
Uncertainty over the results of US presidential elections on Tuesday too impacted the overall sentiment.
“Local traders are expected to rake from this unexpected fall as it could be generating more demand from the traditional jewellery buyers ahead of the long festival and wedding season,” a dealer commented.
Standard gold (99.5 purity) slumped by Rs 365 per 10 gm to finish at Rs 30,380 from Friday’s closing level of Rs 30,745.
Pure gold (99.9 purity) tumbled by Rs 385 per 10 gms to end at Rs 30,500 from Rs 30,885.
Silver ready (.999 fineness) tanked by a hefty Rs 1,410 per kg to conclude at Rs 58,780 as against Rs 60,190 yesterday.
In New York, gold for December delivery sank by $40.30 to settle at $1,675.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the NYMEX late yesterday. While silver for December contract fell by $1.39 to close at $30.86 an ounce.