London/New Delhi, Sept. 14: Gold and silver hit record highs in the international markets as the US dollar declined after upbeat data failed to convince investors to shift into risk-linked assets.
Gold is now on course for a 15 per cent gain in 2010, fueled by investor nervousness that stemmed from the fallout from the euro zone debt crisis and from economic data that has suggested global economic growth may be losing momentum.
Spot gold was at $1,269.65 an ounce, up from $1,245.25 the day before, having hit a record high of $1,271.20 earlier in the session. US gold futures for December delivery were last up $24.3 an ounce at $1,271.20.
Spot silver was bid at $20.27 an ounce as against $20.02. “It’s continuing the trends that we’ve seen through this year really. Equity markets just remain very, very lacking in confidence, no one is prepared to put positions on and stick with them for any length of time,” said Mr Tom Kendall of Credit Suisse.
In India, standard gold (99.5 purity) soared by `165 per ten grams to end at Rs 19,020 from Monday’s closing level of `18,855.
Silver ready (.999 fineness) zoomed by `440 per kilo to `32,530 from overnight closing level of `32,090.
Silver craze
Demand
Apart from jewellery and utensils, silver is also used in many products ranging from keyboards to phones, refrigerators and thousands of other goods.
Supply
Silver production is mostly a by product of other mining such as lead, gold and zinc. Silver consumption has been outstripping supply for over 14 years.