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Informist, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024

By Sandeep Sinha

MUMBAI – Futures contracts of gold today fell on the Multi Commodity Exchange of India and the COMEX due to profit-booking after a sharp gain in the past few sessions. Investors were also cautious ahead of the US personal consumption expenditure and initial jobless claims data to be released later Thursday and September nonfarm payrolls scheduled on Friday. 

However, the yellow metal is on track to end the month with the second-best gain in 2024, having risen 6% on the MCX and 5.8% so far due to uncertainty related to the US presidential election and safe-haven demand. Gold has gained 8.2% on the MCX and 7.9% in March.

"Gold prices witnessed slight profit-taking as traders preferred to secure gains from recent rallies ahead of Friday’s key events—the non-farm payroll and unemployment reports," Jateen Trivedi, vice-president and research analyst at LKP Securities said in a note. "The upcoming US election next week is expected to be a decisive factor for gold’s trend, with market participants closely watching its outcome for further direction."

At 1702 IST, the most-active December GOLD contract on the MCX was down 0.4% at INR 79,393 per 10 gm. The most-active December contract on COMEX was 0.5% lower at $2,788.0 per ounce. The highest call open interest for gold was at the INR 78,000-INR 80,000 strike price, suggesting a bullish view. The highest put open interest was at the INR 75,000-INR 74,000 strike for the Nov. 26 gold contract.

However, the downside in the yellow metal was cushioned by fresh inflows in gold exchange-traded funds and a weaker dollar, which makes commodities priced in the greenback cheaper for holders of other currencies. At 1832 IST, the dollar index, which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was down 0.1% at 104.02.

On Wednesday, the gold holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed ETF, rose by 2.87 tonnes to 892.65 tonnes. The fund has a market value of $79.7 billion.

SILVER prices fell, taking cues from the COMEX, and negative cues from gold. At 1710 IST, the most-active December contract of silver on the MCX was down 1% at INR 96,762 per kg. The same-month contract on the COMEX was 1.2% lower at $33.67 per ounce.

The MCX Bulldex, an index that tracks the real-time performance of gold and silver futures on the MCX, was down 72 points at 19795 points. As of 1715 IST, the December and February gold contracts recorded turnovers of INR 11.54 billion and INR 2.04 billion, respectively, on the MCX. The December and March silver contracts saw turnovers of INR 17.15 billion and INR 1.5 billion, respectively.

The spot gold-silver ratio, also known as the Mint ratio, rose to 82.87, indicating that gold had outperformed silver. The ratio measures the ounces of silver required to buy an ounce of gold. The ratio was 81.66 on Wednesday.

Outlook for the rest of the session:

--MCX gold seen at INR 79,000–INR 79,800 per 10 gm

--COMEX gold seen at $2,775.00–$2,806.00 an ounce

--MCX silver seen at INR 95,500-INR 98,000 per kg

--COMEX silver seen at $33.43-$34.30 an ounce 

End

US$1 = INR 84.08

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

Edited by Vidhi Verma

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