Gold halts 4-day rally on profit-taking; silver slumps

Snapping four days of consecutive rise, gold prices dropped at the domestic bullion market here following renewed selling by stockists and jewellery traders tracking a weak trend overseas.
However, silver plunged further on heavy speculative unwinding coupled with subdued industrial offtake.
Standard gold (99.5 purity) dropped by Rs 120 to finish at Rs 26,655 per 10 grams from Wednesday's closing level of Rs 26,775.
Pure gold (99.9 purity) also fell by a similar margin to settled at Rs 26,805 per 10 grams against Rs 26,925.
Silver (.999 fineness) went down by Rs 170 to conclude at Rs 37,440 per kg from Rs 37,610 yesterday.

In global trade, the metal turned weak after rallying for four-straight sessions on the back of strengthening dollar value and investors; caution ahead of key US economic data release later in the day.
Spot gold was substantially weak at USD 1,178.5 an ounce in early European trading, while silver quoted lower at USD 15.84 an ounce.