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Informist, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024

By Sandeep Sinha

MUMBAI – Futures contracts of gold fell on the Multi Commodity Exchange of India and COMEX on profit-taking following Wednesday's sharp rise. The sentiment was also weighed down by a firm dollar, which makes commodities priced in the greenback expensive for holders of other currencies.

At 1910 IST, the dollar index, which measures the strength in the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was up 0.2% at 106.78. "Gold traded within a volatile range and experienced minor profit booking at higher levels," Jateen Trivedi, vice-president and research analyst at LKP Securities, said in a note.

At 1910 IST, the most-active February contract of GOLD on the MCX was down 0.5% at INR 78,600 per 10 grams. The most-active February contract on COMEX was 0.8% lower at $2,735.60 per ounce. The highest call open interest was at INR 79,000-80,000 strike prices, suggesting a bullish view on gold. The highest put open interest was at INR 76,000-74,000 strikes for the Dec. 31 contract.

However, the downside in the yellow metal was limited by fresh inflows in gold exchange-traded funds and safe-haven demand due to heightened geopolitical tension in West Asia. On Wednesday, gold holdings with the SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed ETF, rose by 2.59 tonnes to 873.38 tonnes. The fund has a market value of $75.96 billion. On the National Stock Exchange, the total value of gold ETFs traded Thursday was INR 975.9 million, down from INR 1.42 billion Wednesday.

SILVER prices fell, taking cues from COMEX and weakness in gold and industrial metals. At 1910 IST, the most-active March contract of silver on the MCX was down 0.6% at INR 95,197 per kg. The same-month contract on COMEX was 0.9% lower at $32.69 per ounce.

On the options front, the highest call open interest was at INR 100,000 strike price. The highest put open interest was at INR 90,000 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 45 points at 19355 points. At 1740 IST, the February and April gold contracts recorded turnovers of INR 32.17 billion and INR 1.60 billion, respectively, on the MCX. The March and May silver contracts saw turnovers of INR 31.55 billion and INR 1.07 billion, respectively.

The spot gold-silver ratio, also known as the Mint ratio, rose to 85.34 Thursday, indicating that gold had outperformed silver. The ratio measures the ounces of silver required to buy an ounce of gold. The ratio was 85.05 on Wednesday.

Outlook for the rest of the session:

--MCX gold seen at INR 78,400–79,300 per 10 gm

--COMEX gold seen at $2,704.0–$2,770.0 an ounce

--MCX silver seen at INR 94,900-96,530 per kg

--COMEX silver seen at $32.42-$33.15 an ounce

End

US$1 = INR 84.85

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

Edited by Rajeev Pai

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