Gold, Silver Continue Losing Spree

Both the precious metals dropped further on the bullion market here on Jan 22 following lower global advices amid weak equity markets. Traders and retailers sold metals to cover their recent sharp losses incurred in the stock markets and even to invest at lower levels when share prices stabilised, a dealer said. The benchmark Sensex has crashed by 4,097.51 points or 19.67 per cent in the last seven days of trading, of which 2,283.76 points or 12.01 per cent was in last two days only. In Asia, gold extended its fall in Asia as the dollar gained. Bullion for immediate delivery fell $9.67, or 1.1 per cent, to $855.33 an ounce. Gold has tumbled 5.8 per cent from its all-time high of $914.30 an ounce.

In London, it was fixed down in the morning at $862.00 an ounce from Jan 21''s afternoon fixing of $871.25 an ounce while in Hong Kong it ended lower at $860.90/861.60 an ounce from previous close of $874.10/874.80.Turning to local market, silver ready (.999 fineness) dipped by Rs 320 per kilo to close at Rs 20,150 from overnight close of Rs 20,470. Standard gold (99.5 purity) dropped by Rs 135 per ten grams to Rs 11,055 from last close of Rs 11,190. Pure gold (99.9 purity) also moved down by same margin to Rs 11,105 per ten grams from Rs 11,240 previously.