Gold surges ahead on frenzied buying, festive demand soars

Precious gold continued its bullish momentum for the third straight day at the bullion market here on sustained wave of buying from stockists and jewellers, backed by strong seasonal offtake.The industrial metal silver rebounded sharply to reclaim the key psychological Rs 50,000 per kg mark following aggressive speculative buyout.

Resurgence in demand in view of robust festival and marriage season offtake amid supply crunch due to a sudden drop in the availability of yellow-metal following the RBI restrictions on consignment import is mainly pushing up domestic prices at this juncture, bullion traders commented.

Standard gold of 99.5 per cent purity shot up by a whopping Rs 410 to finish at Rs 31,740 per 10 grams from Tuesday's closing level of Rs 31,330.

Pure gold of 99.9 per cent purity jumped by Rs 420 to end at Rs 31,890 per 10 grams as comapred to Rs 31,470.

Silver ready (.999 fineness) galloped by Rs 910 to conclude at Rs 50,540 per kg from overnight closing level of Rs 49,630.

Globally, the shiny metal rallied to nearly five-week high after weaker-than-expected US job data amid swelling expectations that Federal Reserve will keep its economic stimulus on hold for an extended period.

Gold December delivery climbed USD 26.80 to settle at USD 1,342.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the NYMEX late yesterday. Silver December contract also spiked to end at USD 22.79 an ounce.