Gold rate today: Yellow metal trades marginally higher

NEW DELHI: Gold prices were trading marginally higher in Thursday’s trade as strong dollar and bond yields kept upside capped, despite the ongoing Russian-Ukraine war.

Dollar and gold share an inverse relation. On the other hand, gold is sensitive to higher yields, which increases the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.

On Thursday, gold futures on MCX for April delivery were trading at Rs 51,767 per 10 gram, up Rs 99 or 0.19 per cent. Holdings of the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, stood at 1,087.66 tonnes on Wednesday, its highest since February 26, 2021.

Silver futures for May delivery were trading Rs 70 or 0.10 per cent higher at Rs 68,264 per kg.

Federal Reserve policymakers overnight signaled they stand ready to take more aggressive action to bring down unacceptably high inflation, including a possible half-percentage-point interest rate hike at the next policy meeting in May, Reuters reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat to switch certain gas sales to roubles sent European futures soaring on concerns the move would exacerbate an energy crunch and jam up deals that run to hundreds of millions of dollars every day, a separate report suggested.

Trading strategy
Rahul Kalantri, VP Commodities at Mehta Equities said he expects both the precious metals to remain volatile ahead of NATO and EU’s two-day summit. Gold, he said, has support at $1,910-1,895, while he sees resistance at $1,950-1,964. Silver has support at $24.78-24.55 while resistance is at $25.40-25.64, Kalantri said.

“In rupee terms, gold has support at Rs 51,280–51,000, while resistance is at Rs 51,950–52,080. Silver has support at Rs 67,700- 67,220 while resistance is at Rs 68,450–68,940,” he said.

Global markets
Spot gold was little changed at $1,943.75 per ounce. US gold futures were up 0.4 per cent to $1,944.40, Reuters reported. Spot silver was up 0.1 per cent to $25.08 per ounce, while platinum shed 0.3 per cent to $1,016.99.

Palladium, used by automakers in catalytic converters to curb emissions, added 1.5 per cent to $2,549.34 per ounce.