Gold hits 5-month high of Rs 28,500; Silver regains Rs 40K/kg mark

Rising for the fifth day, gold on Wednesday added another Rs 320 to trade at an over five-month high of Rs 28,500 per ten grams and silver regained the Rs 40,000 per kg level after a gap of four months at the bullion market, driven by wedding season demand amid firming global cues.

Silver prices moved up by Rs 950 to Rs 40,150 per kg on increased offtake by industrial units and coin makers.

Bullion merchants said apart from wedding season buying by jewellers, a firming trend in global markets where gold exceeded $1,300 an ounce for the first time since August mainly buoyed the sentiment.

Besides a speculation that slowing global growth will prompt central banks to boost stimulus spurring demand for the yellow metal as safe haven, they added.

Gold in Singapore, which mostly set the price trend on the domestic front, climbed 0.6 per cent to $1,303.63 an ounce and silver by 1.9 per cent to USD 18.33 an ounce, the highest since September.

In the national capital, gold of 99.9 and 99.5 per cent purity surged by Rs 320 each to Rs 28,500 and Rs 28,300 per ten gram respectively, a level last seen on August 20 last year.

The gold has now gathered Rs 1,180 in five straight sessions.

Sovereign, however, held steady at Rs 24,000 per piece of eight gram in limited deals.

In a similar fashion, silver ready regained the Rs 40,000 per kg mark by spurting Rs 950 to Rs 40,150 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 1,035 to Rs 40,215 per kg.

On the other hand, silver coins traded at last level of Rs 64,000 for buying and Rs 65,000 for selling of 100 pieces on restricted buying at higher levels.