Precious metals retreat from record highs on profit selling

Mumbai, Feb 25 (PTI) Both gold and silver prices took aknock from its overnight historical highs at the bullionmarket here today on heavy profit taking by speculators andtraders despite strong global movement.

Given the fact that the Middle-East situation is stillvulnerable and the crisis shows no signs of ending, stockiststurned opportunistic and offloaded heavily to take advantageof rising trend, resulting in a sudden fall in prices, traderssaid.

Gold and silver are witnessing a relentless rally at thedomestic market ever since the geopolitical crisis erupted,pushing the metals to conquer fresh highs.

Silver ready (.999 fineness) tanked by Rs 635 per kg toclose at Rs 49,880 from Thursday''s closing level of Rs 50,515.

Standard gold (99.5 purity) dropped by 215 per 10 gramsto finish at Rs 20,745 from Rs 20,960 yesterday.

Pure gold (99.9 purity) declined by Rs 220 per 10 gramsto end at Rs 20,845 as compared to Rs 21,065 previously.

In New York, gold for February delivery gained yesterdayby USD 1.80 to USD 1,415.80 an ounce on the Comex division ofthe NYMEX. While silver''s March contract slipped 13 cents tosettle at USD 33.17 an ounce.