Prices recover late in the week

DOMESTIC/ Bullion

The prices of gold both globally and locally continued to fluctuate within a range, looking subdued in the beginning of the week, but gaining ground towards the end with renewed weakness in the dollar.

Silver saw more volatility than gold.

On the Comex, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, prices overcame overbought positions, and the benchmark February gold declined to $441.40 on Thursday from $442.90 per troy ounce.

Markets were closed on December 24, for Christmas.

The spot London gold fix closed the week at $442.20 (AM) on Friday, as the second session was closed for Christmas eve.

According to analysts, for the market to go up, gold needed a series of closes above $452.5 levels and a final push above the previous high of $458.2 targeting $475 levels.

In the short term a push below $437 would negate the bullish outlook and the support levels of $430-$425 would be tested.

Prices were dependent on the euro which seemed due for a correction soon.

The resistance level for the euro was 1.34 which if broken would target 1.37 levels against the dollar.

A move below 1.32 would negate this outlook and target 1.33 levels.

In the local market, during the week ended December 24, gold closed at the same level as the previous week.

The market remained closed on Saturday on the occasion of Christmas.

Spot gold (99.50 purity) in Mumbai closed at Rs 6400 on Friday per 10 gram.

Spot gold (99.90 purity) closed at Rs 6440, after extremely range-bound trade.

Spot silver (.999) closed higher from last week's close of Rs 10655 to end at Rs 10755 per kilogram.

Futures trading maintained its positive trend with a bullish outlook for next year.

On the National Commodity Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), the January gold minorly declined to Rs 6359 from Rs 6394, with open positions worth 633400 gram and a volume of contract of 38400 gram.

The February gold closed higher at Rs 6393 compared with last week's close of Rs 6373.

Open interest and volume were at 250100 gram and 6400 gram respectively.

Silver contract in January on NCDEX closed at Rs 10483 compared with Rs10242 last week.

The open interest closed at 101025kg while the volume of contract stood at 5815.

The February contract closed at Rs 10519 from Rs 10390 last week, with open interest of 48130 and a volume of 1910.

On the Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) the February contract closed at Rs 6368 from Rs 6347 with an open interest of 3944 kg, and a volume of 530 kg.

The April contract closed from last week's Rs 6365 at Rs 6379 with open interest of 84 kg and a volume of 16 kg.

The June contract closed at Rs 6437 compared with last week's Rs 6369 along with an open interest of 10 kg.

The February Gold HNI (High Net Worth Individuals) contract closed at Rs 6376 on Friday from last week's Rs 6266.

HNI Silver March closed at Rs 10081 from Rs 9926 last week, with an open interest of 2700 kg and a volume of 150 kg traded.

The March 4 silver contract rose to close at Rs 10512 on Friday from Rs 10411 last week.

The open positions stood at 229860 kg and the volume of contract was 34350 kg.

The May contract traded at Rs 10513 from the previous week's close Rs 10410, with 3330 kg positions open, and a volume of 60 kg.

The July contract of silver closed at Rs 10513 up from Rs 10500 last week with an open interest and a volume of 600 kg and 60 kg respectively.