Precious metals glitter on festival demand

Mumbai, Dec 25 (UNI) The precious metals today recovered smartly with Silver up by Rs 70 per kg and Gold by Rs 20 per ten gm on good christmas festival demand despite the bearish phase at Asian markets, traders at the Bombay Bullion Association (BBA) said.

Silver (.999 fineness) variety resumed higher at Rs 19,095 per kg on lack of offers by stockists. Later, it closed upward at Rs 19,115 per kg with a gain of Rs 70 per kg from its last close.

There was increase in christmas festival demand inspite of weaker advices from Asian markets.

Similarly, values of standard mint gold (99.5 purity) and pure gold (99.9 purity) resumed higher at Rs 10,385 per ten gm and Rs 10,435 per ten gm respectively mainly on fresh festival buying support by local ornament makers.

Later, both standard and pure gold closed positive at Rs 10,390 and Rs 10,440 per ten gm respectively. Finally, both the prices further gained slightly by Rs 20 each as compared to their previous close.

Traders received a report from Tokyo that precious metals there rose to catch up with gains made during a public holiday in Japan a day earlier, with the benchmark platinum futures contract jumping to a record high.

Activity thinned down by late Asian trade as traders refrained to take new positions as both New York and London markets will be closed later in the day.

Gold drifted down, but the strength in platinum kept the cash price above USD 800 per ounce.

Gold was trading at USD 806.70/807.50 per ounce compared with USD 812.30/813.10 on Monday.

Japanese gold futures jumped in line with the cash price, but they were off the session's highs.

Benchmark TOCOM gold futures closed at 2,986 yen per gram, up 50 yen or 1.7 percent from Friday's close.

Silver fell to USD 14.45/14.50 an ounce from Monday's late U.S. level of USD 14.52/14.57, which did not impact he both the domestic prices, traders pointed out.

Following were the spot Silver and Gold closing prices: Silver (per kg) .999 grade Rs 19,115 (19,045) Gold (per 10 gm): Standard mint 99.5 purity: Rs 10,390 (10,370) Pure gold 99.9 purity: Rs 10,440 (10,420) UNI AR OBB VKG1837