Gold improves on retail buying; silver slides

Gold prices continued to move up at the domestic bullion market today on sustained demand from retailers and jewellers at current levels amid good investment off-take.
However, silver remained under selling pressure for the third straight session and dropped to fresh two-week lows owing to heavy speculative unwinding.
Standard gold of 99.5 per cent purity gained Rs 40 to end at Rs 29,380 per 10 gm from Friday's closing level of Rs 29,340.
Pure gold of 99.9 per cent purity rose Rs 70 to conclude at Rs 29,545 per 10 gm as compared to Rs 29,475 previously.
Silver ready (.999 fineness), however, dropped by Rs 135 to close at Rs 54,630 per kg from Rs 54,765 yesterday.

Globally, gold finished firm on the back of higher US inflation data as well as easing concerns over winding down monetary easing measures by Federal Reserve.
Gold for April delivery firmed up by USD 1.90 to settle at USD 1,592.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the NYMEX late yesterday.
Silver May contract also ended higher at USD 28.85 an ounce.