Gold bounces back on seasonal demand; no Budget sops

Gold prices rebounded smartly after a brief overnight slide at the domestic bullion market here on emergence of buying by jewellery stockists and retail consumers amid good seasonal demand.

Silver also regained some lost ground on the back of renewed industrial offtake.

Stockists and investors, who were on the sidelines expecting an import duty cut on the yellow metal in the Union Budget got into a buying spree, triggering a quick recovery in the gold prices, a bullion trader commented.

The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, however announced three schemes, including redeemable gold bonds which will carry a fixed rate of interest to curb gold imports and monetise large idle stocks of the precious metal.

Prices of standard gold (99.5 purity) spurted by Rs 175 to end at Rs 26,605 per 10 grams from Friday's closing level of Rs 26,430.

Pure gold (99.9 purity) also rose by a similar margin to finish at Rs 26,755 per 10 grams compared to previous level of Rs 26,580.

Silver (.999 fineness) climbed by Rs 170 to conclude at Rs 37,770 per kg as against Rs 37,600 yesterday.

In worldwide trade, the shiny metal rebounded on the back of sluggish US macro data amid steady dollar value, though gains were capped on expectations of an impending interest-rate hike.

Gold April delivery ended modestly higher at 1,214.10 an ounce on the Comex division of NYMEX late yesterday, while silver March contract settled at USD 16.585 an ounce.