Gold drops on stockists selling, silver ends steady

Mumbai, Feb 7 (PTI) Gold prices fell at the bullionmarket here today due to profit taking by stockists andspeculators as well as subdued retail buying.

The industrial metal, silver on the other hand, witnessedlacklustre trade and ended steady in the absence of any majorspeculative buying activity.

Standard gold (99.5 per cent purity) declined by Rs 80per 10 grams to end at Rs 20,000 from last Saturday''s closinglevel of Rs 20,080.

Pure gold (99.9 per cent purity) also slipped by asimilar margin to finish at Rs 20,100 from Rs 20,180 lastweekend.

However, silver ready (.999 fineness) closed unaltered atRs 44,975 per kg.

In Europe, spot gold traded slightly higher as investorsopted for high-risk investment bets in view of improvingglobal economic outlook.

Spot gold was bid at USD 1,347.20 an ounce in early tradeas against USD 1,346.90 late in New York on Friday.

Silver was bid at USD 29.21 an ounce as compared to USD29.08 previously.