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Informist, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025

By Sandeep Sinha

MUMBAI – Futures contracts of gold rose on the Multi Commodity Exchange of India and the COMEX Thursday as the dollar fell marginally ahead of the US jobless claims data later in the day. Analysts polled by Dow Jones see the jobless claims for week ended Dec. 28 at 225,000, up 6,000 from the previous week.

At 1500 IST, the dollar index, which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was down 0.1% at 108.44. A weaker greenback makes dollar-denominated precious commodities cheaper for those holding other currencies, thus improving demand.

"The uncertainties around Donald Trump's tariff policies, geopolitical risks, and central bank buying support the precious metal," Rahul Kalantri, vice president commodities, Mehta Equities Ltd., said. "Gold price also gets support from weak China manufacturing data released today morning. China's general manufacturing purchasing managers' index fell to 50.5 in December 2024, missing market estimates of 51.7. We are expecting gold and silver prices could maintain positive momentum in today's session," Kalantri said.

At 1500 IST, the most-active February GOLD contract on the MCX was up 0.4% at INR 77,174 per 10 grams. The most-active February contract on the COMEX was 0.4% higher at $2,650.40 per ounce. The highest call open interest for gold was at INR 80,000 strike price, suggesting a bullish view. The highest put open interest was at the INR 74,000 strike for the Jan. 27 contract.

On Tuesday, gold holdings with SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed ETF, remained steady for the third consecutive day at 872.52 tonnes. The fund has a market value of $73.22 billion.

SILVER prices were trading higher taking cues from COMEX and gains in gold and industrial metals. At 1503 IST, the most-active March contract on the MCX was up 1.1% at INR 88,576 per kg. The same-month contract on the COMEX was up 1.8% at $29.76 per ounce.

The MCX Bulldex, an index that tracks the real-time performance of gold and silver futures on the MCX, was up 111 points at 18697 points. As at 1504 IST, the February and April gold contracts recorded turnovers of INR 14.74 billion and INR 965.27 million, respectively. The March and May silver contracts saw turnovers of INR 11.07 billion and INR 395.23 million, respectively.

The spot gold-silver ratio, also known as the Mint ratio, fell to 89.93 on Thursday, indicating that gold had underperformed silver. The ratio measures the ounces of silver required to buy an ounce of gold. The ratio was 90.77 on Tuesday.

Outlook for the rest of the session:

--MCX gold seen at INR 76,725–INR 77,300 per 10 gm

--COMEX gold seen at $2,635.0–$2,665.0 an ounce

--MCX silver seen at INR 87,800-INR 89,000 per kg

--COMEX silver seen at $29.50-$30.05 an ounce

End

US$1 = INR 85.74

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

Edited by Ashish Shirke

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