Mumbai, Sept 22: Gold prices zoomed up to touch a seven-month high of Rs 5840 per ten gram at the opening on the bullion market here today. The metal had never crossed the Rs 5800 per ten gram mark since February this year, dealers said.
Attributing the sharp rise in prices to higher New York advices, dealers said in New York the metal had shot up by $5.20 per troy ounce to $382 on Friday due to heavy buying by banks as weakening of dollar made it better to invest in gold.
Similarly, buying interest was strong in several other overseas markets too and prices closed firm in Hong Kong, Japan and Australia, they added.
In the local market, stockists were the active buyers but supply from overseas markets were poor due to higher prices there and the prices flared up. However, local buyers were not much active, dealers said.
Pure gold (99.9 purity) opened the day at Rs 5840, showing a smart rise of Rs 60 over the weekend level of Rs 8780, while standard gold (99.5 purity) showed a bigger gain of Rs 70 at Rs 5810 as against the last level of Rs 5740.
Meanwhile, smart rises in prices were seen in Chennai also where standard gold opened sharply higher at Rs 5905 as against the previous close of Rs 5825. Bureau Report