Gold glitters again, soars to 22-month high on heavy buying

Gold prices surged ahead to revisit its highest level in 22 months at the domestic bullion market Mumbai on unabated buying spree from jewellery stockists and traders driven by highly bullish overseas sentiment.

Elsewhere, silver also shot up to reclaim the key Rs 38,000 mark in the face of frantic speculative offtake coupled with steady industrial demand. Standard gold (99.5 purity) rose by Rs 270 to finish at Rs 29,580 per 10 grams from last Friday's closing value of Rs 29,300 - its strongest close since May 12, 2014.

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Pure gold (99.9 purity) also climbed by a similar margin to end at Rs 29,720 per 10 grams as compared to Rs 29,450 earlier.

Silver (.999 fineness) zoomed by a whopping Rs 700 per kg to conclude at Rs 38,350 as against Rs 37,650 last weekend.

Meanwhile, the ongoing strike by the bullion traders and jewellers entered its seventh straight day today against the Budget proposal to impose 1% excise duty on jewellery.

In worldwide trade, the shinny metal rebounded sharply to hit a 13-month high on heavy safe-haven demand as sentiment turned highly buoyant after downbeat Chinese trade data from the world's second largest economy fueled concerns about global growth.

Spot was trading substantially higher at $1,273.40 an ounce in early European trade, while silver quoted a tad weak at $15.59 an ounce.