Gold rallies on heavy stockist offtake, silver recovers

Gold prices rallied further at the bullion market here today due to heavy stockists and speculative off-take amidst buoyant overseas trend.

Silver also recovered on the back of fresh speculative buyout coupled with better industrial demand.

"The yellow metal witnessed some lower level demand and got a boost from safe investment buying bet due to sluggish equities," traders said.

Standard gold (99.5 per cent purity) hardened by Rs 105 per 10 grams to end at Rs 20,505 from Monday's closing level of Rs 20,400.

Pure gold (99.9 per cent purity) rose by a similar margin to close at Rs 20,605 per 10 grams, as compared to Rs 20,500 yesterday.

Silver ready (.999 fineness) jumped by Rs 225 per kilo to finish at Rs 45,565 from overnight closing level of Rs 45,340.

In New York, gold recovered on dollar weakness amidst China's interest rate hike.

Gold for February delivery closed up by $2.40 to U$1,382.90 an ounce, while silver March delivery eased by eight cents to $29.25 an ounce.