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Informist, Friday, Apr. 11, 2025

By Sandeep Sinha

MUMBAI – Futures contracts of gold rose on the Multi Commodity Exchange of India and the COMEX on Friday as the escalation in trade tensions between China and the US boosted the yellow metal's safe-haven demand. The positive sentiment was further aided by weakness in the dollar and continued inflows into gold exchange-traded funds.

China raised import tariffs on US goods to 125% Friday in retaliation to a US tariff of 145% on Chinese goods. "Gold rose back towards record highs as safe-haven demand remained elevated amid unpredictable trade policy signals," said Daria Efanova, head of research, Sucden Financial, in a report.

At 1800 IST, the dollar index, which measures the strength in the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was down 1.1% at 99.78. The index had hit a two-year low of 99.01 earlier in the day. A weaker greenback makes dollar-denominated commodities cheaper for those holding other currencies, thus, improving demand.

On Thursday, gold holdings with the SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed ETF, rose by 12.62 tonnes to 949.71 tonnes, the highest since September 2022. The fund has a market value of $95.96 billion. On the National Stock Exchange, the total value of gold ETFs traded on Friday was INR 5.30 billion.

At 1800 IST, the most-active June GOLD contract on the MCX was up 1.5% at INR 93,436 per 10 grams, after touching a fresh life high of INR 93,736 per 10 grams earlier Friday. The most-active June gold contract on the COMEX was 2% higher at $3,243.40 per ounce. The contract hit a fresh alltime high of $3,255.9 per ounce during the day.

The highest call open interest was at the INR 95,000 strikes, indicating a bullish view. The highest put open interest was at the INR 90,000-INR 88,000 strikes for the Apr. 30 contract.

SILVER contracts traded higher, taking cues from COMEX, and tracking the firm trends in gold and industrial metals. At 1803 IST, the most-active May contract on the MCX was up 1.5% at INR 92,984 per kg. The same-month contract on the COMEX was 2.2% higher at $31.44 per ounce. On the options front, the highest call open interest was at the INR 100,000 strike price. The highest put open interest was at the INR 90,000 strike for the Apr. 24 expiry contract.

The MCX Bulldex, an index that tracks the real-time performance of gold and silver futures on the MCX, was up 327 points at 21425 points. The June and August gold contracts on the MCX recorded turnovers of INR 94.08 billion and INR 8.39 billion, respectively. The May and July silver contracts saw turnovers of INR 30.26 billion and INR 5.38 billion, respectively.

The spot gold-silver ratio, also known as the Mint ratio, rose to 102.17 on Friday, indicating that gold had outperformed silver. The ratio measures the ounces of silver required to buy an ounce of gold. The ratio was 99.38 on Thursday.

Outlook for the rest of the session:

--MCX gold seen at INR 91,800–INR 94,141 per 10 gm

--COMEX gold seen at $3,160.0–$3,267.33 an ounce

--MCX silver seen at INR 91,786-INR 93,270 per kg

--COMEX silver seen at $30.96-$32.13 an ounce

End

US$1 = INR 86.04

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

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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