Mild correction

Domestic Review: Bullion

Prices of gold and silver in the domestic market witnessed a slight correction after a rally of almost three-weeks, following the international trend.

With the prices of oil almost hitting $55 a barrel on Friday, the dollar saw an eight-month low against the euro. This resulted in gold trading higher after four days, on Friday. However, Comex gold ended the week down by $4.40.

Friday's rise could not match the $423 levels reached early last week due to a lacklustre economic data from the US.

The spot London gold fix closed the week at $420.40 (PM) from last Friday's $421.75 while the December futures contract on the Comex in New York closed at Rs 420.10 from $424.40 last week..In the domestic market, the precious metals saw the slightly lower prices before the onset of the festival buying .

During the week ended October 16, spot gold (99.50 purity) in Mumbai closed lower from last week's close of Rs 6365 at Rs 6340 on Saturday per 10 gram. Spot gold (99.90 purity) closed at Rs 6375 on Friday from last week's Rs 6405.

Silver, which has a higher demand from the industrial side also dipped. Spot silver (.999) closed sharply higher from last week's close of Rs 11475 to end at Rs 11395/kg.

The futures market followed suit. On the National Commodity Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), the October gold contract ended on Friday at Rs 6264 from Rs 6273 last week. The volumes were 66600 gram. Open interest stood at 387000 gram.

The November contract decreased to Rs 6260 from Rs 6274, with open positions worth 274900 gram and a volume of contract of 44900 gram.

The December contract closed lower at Rs 6259 compared with last week's close of Rs 6274, with an open interest and volume of 86500 gram and 12900 gram respectively.

The new December 7 contract of Sona (.995) traded at Rs 6190 from Rs 6240 last week. The open interest was 24 with no trades. The February 7 contract traded at a steady Rs 6250 with an open interest of 10. The Chandi contract of December 7 closed at Rs 10924 compared with Rs 11114 last week, with an open interest of 2430 and a volume of 630.

NCDEX October silver futures closed at Rs 10955 with an open interest of 52880. The price rose from last week's Rs 11097.

The November contract on the contrary closed at Rs 10927 compared with Rs 10748 last week. The open interest closed at 34835 kilogram while the volume of contract stood at 8295.

The December contract closed from Rs 11070 last week at Rs 10922, with an open interest of 17190 and a volume of 2065. On the Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) the December gold closed at Rs 6272 from Rs 6265 with an open interest of 2215 kg and a volume of 1785 kg.

The December GoldHNI (High Net Worth Individuals) contract closed at Rs 6140 on Friday from last week's Rs 6173. The open interest stood at 33 kg with 135 kg volumes.

HNI Silver closed at Rs 10347 from Rs 10578.00 last week, with an open interest of 5250 kg and a volume of 2700 kg traded.

The February 4 contract closed at Rs 6260 from Rs 6275 with an open interest of 14 and a volume of 8 traded. The December 3 silver contract dipped to close at Rs 11012 on Friday from Rs 11107 last week. The open positions stood at 135510 kg and the volume of contract was 82560 kg.

The March 2005 contract traded at Rs 10971 from Rs 11065 with 1920 kg positions open, and a volume of 780 kg.