Silver surges to Rs 60,500, gold up by Rs 160

Both the precious metals, silver and gold, maintained their upward march for the fourth straight session on Wednesday on brisk buying by stockists and speculators, on a firm trend overseas. While silver surged Rs 2,200 to Rs 60,500 per kg, gold rose by Rs 160 to Rs 22,580 per 10 grams.

Trading sentiments remained bullish as gold and silver extended their rise in global markets as faster-than-forecast inflation in China and a resurgence of Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis increased demand for the metals as a store of value.

Gold in global markets, which normally sets the price trend on the domestic front, gained 0.5 per cent to $ 1,524.40 per ounce and silver by 2.2 per cent to $39.33 an ounce.

Standard and Poor’s downgraded Greece’s credit rating time earlier this week for the fourth since April, 2010, signalling that the region’s debt crisis is escalating.

Demand for precious metals also grew as the dollar declined by 0.4 per cent this week against six major currencies.

Sustained buying by retailers for the ongoing marriage season further fuelled the uptrend in the precious metals.

On the domestic front, gold 99.9 and 99.5 per cent purity rose further by Rs 160 each to Rs 22,580 and Rs 22,460 per 10 grams, respectively. Sovereigns followed suit and traded higher by Rs 50 to Rs 18,500 per piece of eight grams.

Silver ready spurted by Rs 2,200 to Rs 60,500 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 2,240 to Rs 59,740 per kg. Silver coins also rose by Rs 3,500 to Rs 67,000 for buying and Rs 68,000 for selling of 100 pieces.