Gold fails to glitter on auspicious Akshaya Tritiya

The biggest gold buying festival  - Akshaya Tritiya - failed to enthuse the spirit of buyers as the precious metal finished marginally lower at the domestic bullion hub today.

Silver also weakened further on the back of poor buying support from industrial users and jewellery makers.

Despite ongoing wedding and festive season buzz, gold witnessed a relatively quiet and side-way momentum as buyers preferred to remain on the sidelines awaiting further price correction and expectations of import duty cut.

Though, token buying by retailers and consumers on the auspicious occasion limited the losses, a bullion trader said.

Standard gold (99.5 purity) declined by Rs 45 to end at Rs 26,695 per 10 grams from Monday's level of Rs 26,740.

Pure gold (99.9 purity) also shed by a similar margin to finish at Rs 26,845 per 10 grams compared to Rs 26,890.

Silver (.999 fineness) eased by Rs 20 to settle at Rs 37,130 per kg as against Rs 37,150 yesterday.

In worldwide trade, gold managed to trade above the key psychological USD 1,200 benchmark despite strong dollar and a rally in global equities.

Spot gold was bid higher at USD 1,201.5 an ounce in early European trade, while spot silver quoted up at USD 16.06 an ounce.