Bullions stay unchanged

Bullion metal prices ended marginally higher on Monday, 04 March 2013. Gold futures prices ended the U.S. day session near unchanged on Monday, as some mild bargain hunting were checked by bearish outside market forces - a stable U.S. dollar index that is hovering near a six-month high, and lower crude oil prices that are at a nine-week low.

Gold for April delivery ended higher by $0.10 or 0.1%, to settle at $1,572.4 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday.

March silver ended higher by less than a cent at $28.5 an ounce on Monday.

The U.S. government March 1 budget sequestration deadline has come and gone with no agreement. There was no progress made on the matter among politicians during the weekend. While this situation is not unexpected, it has cast a bit of a bearish pall over most of the market place early this week.

Meantime, there is a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels beginning Monday to once again address their sovereign debt crisis. Discussions will likely include Italy, following last week's elections that showed the country is wavering on its pervious austerity commitments. The EU debt crisis has begun to creep back into focus of the market place recently.

Arguably the most important U.S. economic report of the month, the employment situation report, is due out Friday morning.

The dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies rose by 0.1% on Monday.

At the MCX, gold prices for April delivery closed lower by Rs 72 (0.24%) at Rs 29,668 per ten grams. Prices rose to a high of Rs 29,770 per 10 grams and fell to a low of Rs 29,606 per 10 grams during the day's trading.

At the MCX, silver prices for May delivery closed lower by Rs 117 (0.21%) at Rs 54,820/Kg. Prices opened at Rs 55,088/kg and fell to a low of Rs 54,600/Kg during the day's trading.

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