More Stories

Informist, Thursday, Jul 18, 2024

By Sandeep Sinha

MUMBAI – Futures contracts of GOLD traded in the green on the Multi Commodity Exchange of India and the COMEX but came off the day’s high because of profit-taking at a higher level. The yellow metal on Wednesday hit a new lifetime high of $2,488.40 per oz on COMEX and 74,737 rupees per 10 gm on MCX on an expectation of three interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve.

The sentiment in yellow metal was also supported by weaker-than-expected US jobs data. The US Labour Department data released today showed that the number of citizens claiming jobless benefits rose by 20,000 to 243,000 in the week ended Jul 13.

"Gold edged lower from record highs as traders assessed the possibility of Fed rate cuts and uncertain political outlook in the US. Fed Chair and several FOMC officials have recently acknowledged the progress in taming inflation and moving closer to a Fed pivot, though they have refrained from providing a specific timeline," Kotak Securities said in a note.

On Wednesday, gold holdings with SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, remained steady at 842.02 tn, after receiving the biggest single-day inflow on Tuesday since Jul 2. The fund has a market value of $67.13 bln.

At 1920 IST, the most-active August GOLD contract on the MCX was up 0.2% at 74,270 rupees per 10 gm. The same-month contract on COMEX was higher by 0.2% at $2,463.70 per oz.

On the options front, the highest call open interest for gold is at 75,000 strike, which suggests a bullish view. On the downside, the highest put open interest is at 72,000-73,000 strike for the Jul 25 gold contract on the MCX.

"Additionally, traders are focusing on the upcoming budget next week, monitoring potential regulatory changes from the government. The overall positive outlook for gold remains intact," Jateen Trivedi, vice-president and research analyst at LKP Securities said in an email note.

SILVER prices rose, taking firm cues from COMEX and a positive trend in gold. At 1920 IST, the most-active September contract for silver on the MCX was up 0.3% at 92,218 rupees per kg. The same-month contract on COMEX rose 0.5% at $30.54 per oz.

On the options front, the highest call open interest for silver is at 95,000-100,000 strike, which suggests a bullish view. On the downside, the highest put open interest is at 90,000-85,000 strike for the Aug 27 silver contract on the MCX.

The MCX Bulldex, an index that tracks the real-time performance of gold and silver futures on the MCX, was up just 13 points at 19000 points. As of 1916 IST, the August and October contracts of gold recorded turnovers of 23.68 bln rupees and 7.26 bln rupees, respectively, on the MCX. At the same time, the September and December contracts of silver saw turnovers of 22.22 bln rupees and 1.35 mln rupees, respectively.

The spot gold-silver ratio, also known as the Mint ratio, was higher at 81.19, which indicates that gold outperformed silver. The ratio measures the ounces of silver required to buy an ounce of gold. The ratio was 79.94 on Wednesday.

Outlook for the rest of the session:

--MCX gold seen at 73,950–74,710 rupees per 10 gm

--COMEX gold seen at $2,450–$2,480 an oz

--MCX silver seen at 91,860-93,400 rupees per kg

--COMEX silver seen at $30.30-$30.80 an oz

End

US$1 = 83.65 rupees

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Edited by Vidhi Verma

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2024. All rights reserved.