gold-silver prices
This year has been great for the commodities market. Especially gold and silver gave strong returns to investors. In this regard, experts believe that gold and silver prices can continue their record-breaking rally, as investors are paying attention to global inflation data and key macroeconomic indicators that decide the path of the Central Bank’s policy.
The main focus will be on macroeconomic data, including inflation data from India, the US, Europe and the UK, as well as provisional manufacturing and services PMI data in major economies. He further said that traders in the US will also keep an eye on non-farm payroll claims, housing data and consumer sentiments, which will decide the direction of bullion prices.
Pranab Mer, Vice President, EBG Commodity and Currency Research, JM Financial Services, said in a PTI report that the movement of gold and silver will remain positive as (traders) will focus on the key data from China. After this, we will keep an eye on inflation data from India, America and Britain as well as provisional manufacturing PMI data from all sectors.
Positive trend in gold
Pranab Mer said that after the Fed rate cut and measures to increase liquidity, gold prices remained positive. However, the central bank maintained a cautious stance, indicating it would wait for more data before providing additional relaxations. This stance led to heavy selling in US Treasuries and put pressure on the dollar index, which helped gold prices.
He further said that geopolitical tensions between the US and Venezuela, as well as concerns over the yen liquidating carry trades ahead of an expected 25 basis points rate cut hike by the Bank of Japan on December 18, have strengthened gold’s safe-haven attraction. On MCX, the yellow metal on Friday hit its all-time high of Rs 1,35,263 for 10 grams, supported by a weak dollar and strong investor buying. Expressing similar sentiments, Pankaj Singh, Founder and Principal Researcher, Smallcase Manager, SmartWealth AI, said the fall in the value of rupee against the US dollar has boosted domestic gold returns.
Why did gold rise?
Pankaj Singh said gold prices continued to rise last week as the rupee fell to a record low against the US dollar amid trade frictions, tariff uncertainty and persistent capital outflows. The currency’s weakness is strengthening the role of gold as a forex hedge for Indian investors. He said the medium-term outlook for gold remains positive as currency trends are impacting domestic prices. Comex Gold Futures in the international market have increased by USD 85.3 or 2.01 percent last week.
In the overseas market, silver futures rose USD 2.95 or 5 per cent last week and crossed the USD 65 an ounce mark for the first time on Friday. Pranab Mer said that on Friday, silver prices reached another all-time high and crossed the Rs 2,00,000 level in the domestic market. However, metal prices fell in sharp selling of more than 4 percent during the US trading session.
Investing in ETFs
According to Riya Singh of MK Global Financial Services, investor participation in precious metals remains strong. He said ETFs in India are seeing record participation, while speculative interest in China’s silver market has increased and Shanghai trading volumes have returned to levels seen during the last supply crisis. Singh said silver is being supported by falling yields, ample liquidity, strong central-bank buying, consistent ETF inflows and strong industrial demand from sectors like solar energy and electronics.
He said that unless there is a significant change in US monetary expectations, volatility may persist, with the precious metals set to maintain an uptrend until early 2026. Mer expects the rise in silver to continue in the near future. He said that silver prices are looking positive and may go further up to the level of Rs 2,25,000-2,40,000 per kg.