Bullion: Gold prices hit multi-month peaks as bullish sentiment continued to dominate trade for the fourth straight week at the bullion market here on the back of surging demand as well as robust seasonal off take.Depreciating rupee value and anticipation of robust purchases ahead of the upcoming wedding and festive seasons, largely weighted in favour of the precious metal.
After a strong start, it maintained its ascent to touch a three-month high during the mid-week trade following sustained wave of buying and also restocking by jewellery stockists and traders ahead of the wedding season.
But, later encountered some selling pressure towards the fag-end session owing to modest profit-taking by local investors after equities staged a smart rebound. The yellow-metal has gained over 6.29 per cent in the fourth consecutive week rally.
The consistent upmove in prices has instilled some confidence among local buyers who have started accumulating in small quantities, largely supporting the case for further upmoves, a bullion trader commented.
Gold has been witnessing a steady spurt since the beginning of the year due to solid investment demand in the midst of a downswing trend in equities along with good speculative offtake driven by extremely positive overseas trend, he added. The bullion market was closed on January 26 on account of the Republic Day.
Elsewhere, silver also strengthened further on higher industrial demand, despite initial volatility. In worldwide trade, the shiny-metal recaptured the key psychological USD 1,100 an ounce mark on safe-haven buying after the Federal Reserve failed to reassure markets in its monthly statement.
Lower-than-expected US GDP data, which fell below forecasts at 0.7 per cent annual rate triggered expectations that the Fed will go slow on future interest rate hikes.
