The Indian bullion market was sluggish on Wednesday amid brisk buying of gold and silver on the auspicious day of Dhanteras on Tuesday. Gold and silver both were down on November 3 despite high demand. The 24-carat variant of the yellow metal was trading at Rs 47,512/10 gm, down by Rs 392/10 gm from Tuesday’s price of Rs 47,904/10 gm, as per the Indian Bullion and Jewellers Association (IBJA). The price of 22-carat gold was also down by Rs 359 to Rs 43,521/10 gm from the previous day’s rate of Rs 43,880/10 gm.
“Gold was almost 6% cheaper than it was during Dhanteras last year, which has encouraged people to buy the precious metal this festival. Gold imports zoomed to about $24 billion in the April-September period, according to commerce ministry data, nearly four times the $6.8 billion of imports in the corresponding period last year,” said Ravi Singh, vice president, Shareindia.
“There has been seen a significant rise in customer footfalls across jewellery stores yesterday and almost 30% rise in sales volumes than previous year. We expect gold prices in MCX to remain range bound till the Fed meeting.” he added.
“From the perspective of seasonality, the month of November has been moderately bullish for gold in the past five years and as long as it keeps above 47,230, there is possibility for the yellow metal to take higher highs from the current levels,” said Manoj Dalmia, founder, Proficient Equities Limited.
Like yellow metal, white metal was also down in the early trading session on November 3. The white metal was trading at Rs 62,881/kg on November 3, down by Rs 1,521/kg from yesterday’s price of Rs 64,402/kg.
Probably this is first time in the last 10 years that silver was down by more than 5% in the day preceding Dhanteras, said experts.