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Informist, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024

By Sandeep Sinha

MUMBAI – Futures contracts of gold were marginally down on the Multi Commodity Exchange of India and the COMEX on Thursday, ahead of the US non-farm payrolls data to be released on Friday. Analysts polled by Dow Jones see the payrolls at 214,000 in November, up from 12,000 in October.

The hawkish comments of US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell were offset by weakness in the dollar and political turmoil in France and South Korea. Powell Wednesday said that the Fed will follow a more cautious approach to future interest rate cuts.

At 1820 IST, the dollar index, which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was down 0.2% at 106.17. A weaker greenback makes dollar-denominated precious commodities cheaper for those holding other currencies, thus improving demand.

At 1820 IST, the most-active February GOLD contract on the MCX was down 0.1% at INR 76,996 per 10 grams. The most-active February contract on COMEX was 0.1% lower at $2,673.8 per ounce. The highest call open interest was at the INR 77,000-INR 78,000 strike prices, suggesting a bullish view on gold. The highest put open interest was at INR 74,000-INR 73,000 strikes for the Dec. 31 gold contract.

On Tuesday, gold holdings with the SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed ETF, remained steady at 873.66 tonnes. The fund has a market value of $74.37 billion. On the National Stock Exchange, the total value of gold ETFs traded was INR 872.1 million, up from INR 812.2 million on Wednesday.

SILVER prices fell taking cues from COMEX and a weak trend in gold. At 1820 IST, the most-active March contract of silver on the MCX was down 0.2% at INR 93,084 per kg. The same-month contract on COMEX was 0.3% lower at $31.83 per ounce.

On the options front, the highest call open interest for silver was at INR 100,000 strike price. The highest put open interest was at INR 85,000 strike for the Feb. 24 expiry.

The MCX Bulldex, an index that tracks the real-time performance of gold and silver futures on the MCX, was down 31 points at 18900 points. At 1820 IST, the February and April gold contracts recorded turnovers of INR 17.80 billion and INR 799.65 million, respectively, on the MCX. The March and May silver contracts saw turnovers of INR 13.35 billion and INR 366.61 million, respectively.

The spot gold-silver ratio, also known as the Mint ratio, fell to 84.64 on Thursday, indicating that silver had underperformed gold. The ratio measures the ounces of silver required to buy an ounce of gold. The ratio was 86.25 on Wednesday.

Outlook for the rest of the session:

--MCX gold seen at INR 76,505–INR 77,250 per 10 gm

--COMEX gold seen at $2,658.30–$2,698.0 an ounce

--MCX silver seen at INR 92,500-INR 94,100 per kg

--COMEX silver seen at $31.25-$32.66 an ounce

End

US$1 = INR 84.73

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

Edited by Ashish Shirke

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