Gold demand down on physical market

Metal to trade range bound next week

Retail gold buying has seen a dip due to liquidity crunch according to bullion traders due to liquidity crunch as well as prices on the spotmarket are on the higher side. Buyers are abstaining from fresh purchases as the import duty is very high at 10%. Despite itbeing the peak demand season, buyers are abstaining from participating in the market and are focused more on need based buying. Bullion investors are staying away from the market and are expected to revive their participation when the government bringsdown import duty on gold.

On the spot market, the price of gold is Rs 31,000 per 10 grams, up by Rs 150 from the previous week. "Retail buying of gold has been impacted due to high prices of gold as well as liquidity crunch on the physical market," said PrithvirajKothari, a Mumbai based bullion dealer.

Gold in the coming week is expected to trade in a narrow range as no significant data release is expected as well as the rupee has also strengthened which will also cause prices to stay where it is rather than rise.

Bullion traders and analysts are of the opinion that the gold prices will trade in the range of Rs 29,500 to Rs 30,000 per 10 grams on MultiCommodity Exchange. Last week, gold for near month delivery on MCX rose by 1.1% to Rs 30,223 per 10 gms. Lastweek, turnover of gold for MCX saw a sharp decline to Rs 3887 crore,down by 25.6% from the previous week.

Participation in the market has seen a negative impact has caused turnover to decline. Also, last week the market was closed due to Mahashivratri which also had an impact on gold turnover of the exchange.

"In the coming week, no major data is expected which will cause prices to see any major movement, it will remain range bound and remain more or less near last week's levels," said Naveen Mathur, associatedirector, commodities and currencies at Angel Broking.

Gold premiums on the domestic market have come off from the all time highlevels and are now at $70 to $75 per ounce on the Mumbai physical market.