Range-bound trades in dull week

DOMESTIC/ Bullion

The prices of gold both globally and locally remained range-bound after it nose-dived last week from its 16-year highs.

The holiday season, ahead of Christmas and New Year, kept traders away from the international market.

However, the continuously moving dollar and resurgent crude prices helped gold stay afloat but kept it subdued.

Silver on the other hand saw bigger losses than gold.

On the Comex, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the prices managed to edge up to $442.90 on Friday from $435.40 per troy ounce last week, on the benchmark February contract on hints of a rebound in the dollar.

Spot London gold fix closed the week slightly higher at $438.90 (PM) from $434 last Friday.

Silver was more volatile than gold and did better, closing at $6.75 on the London spot market, compared with $6.62/6.65 last week.

In the local market, during the week ended December 18, gold stood in the mild positive following the international trend, after last week's massive losses.

Spot gold (99.50 purity) in Mumbai closed at the same price as last week's close of Rs 6415 on Saturday per 10 gram.

Spot gold (99.90 purity) closed at Rs 6450 on Saturday from last week's Rs 6455.

Silver saw a tremendous loss in the week.

Spot silver (.999) closed sharply lower from last week's close of Rs 10775 to end at Rs 10695 per kilogram.

Futures trading to mirrored the range-bound positive trend.

On the National Commodity Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), the December gold increased to Rs 6359 from Rs 6353, with open positions worth 331200 gram and a volume of contract of 33500 gram.

The January gold closed higher at Rs 6372 compared with last week's close of Rs 6353.

Open interest and volume were at 574500 gram and 52100 gram respectively.

Silver contract in December on NCDEX contract closed at Rs 10242 compared with Rs 10377 last week.

The open interest closed at 62785 kilogram while the volume of contract stood at 11770. The January contract closed at Rs 10390 from Rs 10405 last week, with open interest of 109050 and a volume of 33545.

On the Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) the February contract closed at Rs 6347 from Rs 6340 with an open interest of 4014 kg, and a volume of 945 kg.

The April contract closed from last week's Rs 6369 at Rs 6365 with open interest of 102 kg and a volume of 4 kg.

The February Gold HNI (High Net Worth Individuals) contract closed at Rs 6266 on Friday from last week's Rs 6266.

HNI Silver March closed at Rs 9926 from Rs 9785 last week, with an open interest of 3000 kg and a volume of 450 kg traded.

The March 4 silver contract rose to close at Rs 10386 on Friday from Rs 10377 last week.

The open positions stood at 264690 kg and the volume of contract was 93570 kg.

The May contract traded at Rs 10410 from the previous week's close Rs 10288, with 3450 kg positions open, and a volume of 60 kg.