Gold softens on poor offtake, silver drops

Gold prices eased in a quiet trade at the domestic bullion market today due to decreased demand from stockists as well as weak buying sentiment amid stimulus scale down speculation.

The industrial metal also dropped further on lack of industrial demand.

Standard gold (99.5 purity) moved down by Rs 20 to settle at Rs 30,810 per 10 grams from Thursday's closing level of Rs 30,830.

Pure gold (99.9 purity) also fell by a similar margin to end at Rs 30,960 per 10 grams from Rs 30,980.

Silver ready (.999 fineness) shed Rs 255 to finish at Rs 46,280 per kg as against Rs 46,535 yesterday.

On the global front, the shiny metal remained under intense selling pressure and plunged to a four-month low after the US Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke hinted at stimulus pull-back in the coming months and better than expected jobless claims data.

Gold December delivery slipped $14.40 to settle at $1,243.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the NYMEX late yesterday and silver December contract edged lower 12 cents to $ 19.93 an ounce.