Gold soars to 1-year high on frenzied seasonal demand

Mumbai :Riding high on the back of an unprecedented buying frenzy and robust seasonal offtake, gold prices stormed to a one-year high at the domestic bullion hub here amid highly bullish overseas sentiment.

Moving in line with the trend, silver also rallied due to heavy demand from jewelery traders and consuming industries.

The yellow-metal has been surging for the past six sessions predominantly driven by positive global cues in the midst of volatile currency and domestic stocks, a bullion trader said.

Standard gold (99.5 purity) shot-up by Rs 345 to end at Rs 27,775 per 10 grams from last Friday’s closing level of Rs 27,430 – the level not seen since February 3, 2015.

Pure gold (99.9 purity) also jumped by a similar margin of Rs 345 to finish at Rs 27,925 per 10 grams as against Rs 27,580.

Silver (.999 fineness) rose by Rs 235 to close at Rs 36,390 from Rs 36,155 earlier.

In worldwide trade, the shiny-metal continued its rallying momentum after a brief weekend fall owing to massive buying from funds and speculators amid sell-off in equities, despite strong dollar.

Spot gold was trading substantially higher at USD 1,180.70 an ounce in early European trade, while silver reclaimed the USD 15 an ounce level once again.

PTI