Silver charms fresh highs on Diwali eve, gold sparkless

Silver prices continued to charm buyers on the eve of 'Diwali' at the bullion market here today  creating yet another historic peak on aggressive buying by speculators and stockists amid rising trend at the overseas markets.

The Industrial metal rallied to a fresh 30-year high of $25.17 an ounce in early trade in Europe.In contrast, gold failed to attract more buyers this time due to its skyrocketing valuations and ended marginally lower despite good rally in international market.Silver ready (.999 fineness) jumped by Rs 310 per kg to Rs 38,550 from Wednesday's closing level of Rs 38,240.

However, standard gold (99.5 purity) moved down by Rs 10 per 10 grams to settle at Rs 19,635 from Rs 19,645 in the previous session.Pure gold (99.9 purity) also edged down to Rs 19,735 per 10 grams, as against Rs 19,745 yesterday.

On global front, gold overcame its slide and rose sharply in Europe, lifted by the dollar's weakness after the Federal Reserve's proposal to infuse fresh stimulus measures into the financial markets.Spot gold was bid at $1,360.65 an ounce in early trade as against $1,347.15 late in New York yesterday.

US gold futures for December delivery rose $23.10 to $1,360.70.