Gold Rate Today: Yellow metal rises above Rs 71,500/10 gm, silver gains by Rs 590/Kg

Gold prices rose and traded around Rs 71,540 on Monday, following the yellow metal’s ascent to an all-time high in the previous session, fueled by expectations of a U.S. interest rate cut next month.

The October gold futures were trading at Rs 71,543 per 10 grams on the MCX at 10.08 am and were up by Rs 168 or 0.24% from the previous session’s closing price. Meanwhile, the July Silver‘s September futures were trading at Rs 83,805 per kg and were higher by Rs 590 or 0.7% around this time.

Meanwhile, Spot gold was down 0.2% at $2,502.78 per ounce, as of 0317 GMT, and U.S. gold futures edged 0.2% higher to $2,541.80.

“Gold and silver witnessed solid strength amid upbeat U.S. retail sales data,” said Rahul Kalantri, VP of Commodities at Mehta Equities. “U.S. retail sales grew 1.0% in July, significantly exceeding the expected growth of 0.4% and rebounding from the previous month’s contraction of 0.2%. Gold breached its major hurdle of $2,500 and touched an all-time high in the international markets.”

“Gold and silver also gained due to upbeat Chinese retail sales data and weakness in the dollar index. Escalating geo-political tensions and strong demand prospects are also supporting gold and silver prices,” Kalantri said.Enthusiasm over a likely interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve in September propelled bullion to an all-time high of $2,509.65 on Friday. This coupled with increased geopolitical tensions and robust central bank-buying have sent bullion over 20% higher so far this year.Last week, strong U.S. retail sales print and lower-than-expected unemployment claims, along with mild inflation data, restored confidence in the world’s largest economy.Traders are confident that the U.S. Fed will cut rates next month and the focus is now on the size of the reduction. They are pricing in a 75.5% chance of a 25-basis-point cut, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

“Gold has support at $2482-2465 while resistance is at $2518-2534. Silver has support at $28.74-28.55 while resistance is at $29.18-29.34,” said Rahul Kalantri.

In INR terms, gold has support at Rs 70,950-70,740, while resistance is at Rs 71,650-71,820. Silver has support at Rs 82,550-81,880, while resistance is at Rs 83,890-84,540, Kalantri said.

Meanwhile, Prathamesh Mallya, DVP- Research at Angel One said, “Gold prices continued their upward momentum this week, adding over 1% to their gains and extending a steady winning streak. Gold is likely to remain steady, with support from ongoing geopolitical tensions balanced by stronger U.S. economic data.”

The market will also look out for minutes of the Fed’s July policy meeting on Wednesday for further cues.

(With inputs from agencies)

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)