Bullion shines on upcoming festive, wedding seasons

Gold firmed up further at the domestic bullion market here today due to sustained offtake by retail consumers at existing levels in view of the upcoming festival season as well as wedding-related demand.
Besides a stable rupee, improving global sentiments after recent meltdown in commodity markets worldwide also aided the uptrend, a bullion trader said.
Elsewhere, silver maintained its strong momentum on the back of steady industrial demand and also frantic speculative buyout.
Standard gold (99.5 purity) strengthened by Rs 75 to end at Rs 24,770 per 10 grams from Friday's closing level of Rs 24,695.
Pure gold (99.9 purity) also climbed by a similar margin to settle at Rs 24,920 per 10 grams as against Rs 24,845.

Silver (.999 fineness) jumped by Rs 240 to conclude at Rs 34,680 per kg, compared to Rs 34,440 previously.
On the global front, the shiny-metal recovered marginally on weak dollar as well as bout of short-covering by investors, despite a slew of upbeat US economic data.
Gold for December delivery settled up at USD 1,095.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the NYMEX late yesterday, while silver for September contract ended firmly higher at USD 14.935 an ounce.