Gold prices fell by Rs 1,200 per 10 gram on Friday reacting to sudden halt in gold buying by the Chinese central bank, which came on the back of spot gold prices hitting record highs that People’s Bank of China (PBOC) stopped gold purchases to its reserves in May.
The move came after 18 months of consecutive purchases, according to official data.
At 5:20 pm, August gold futures on the MCX were trading at Rs 72,059, down by Rs 1072 or 1.47%. On the Comex, gold futures were trading at $2,350.40 per troy ounce, down by $40.50 or 1.69%.
Analyst Anuj Gupta, Head Commodity & Currency, HDFC Securities, said the record rally in gold has been a trigger behind the move. This comes a day after the European Central Bank (ECB) slashed interest rate by 25 bps which helped the yellow metal appreciate by Rs 600 per 10 grams on Thursday, he added.
The development had a rub-off impact on silver as well. The July futures on MCX tanked by Rs 3,344 per kg to the day’s low of Rs 91,266 versus the Thursday closing of Rs 94,610. They were trading at Rs 92,000 around this time, down by Rs 1,816 or 1.94%.Also read: Gold Price Today: Yellow metal opens slightly higher at Rs 72,914/10 gm; silver rises by Rs 1,100
Silver futures on Comex were trading at $30.525 per troy ounce, down by $0.842 or 2.680%.
Markets are also looking at the US nonfarm payrolls data due later today, where the job growth is likely to be below analyst expectations.
Pranav Mer, Vice President – EBG at JM Financial Services, said that the gold rally so far this year has been triggered by the central bank’s gold demand as they look to diversify their reserves, and PBoC has been the lead aggressive buyer. But the rally took a pause as China slowed its purchase after prices rose steeply in the April-May period.
The Commodity & Currency Research analyst does not see gold demand getting hit as ETF investors and physical demand will hold the prices, he opined.
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