Record close for precious metals

Silver touches $40 mark for first time in three decades

Precious metal prices glittered and registered new record on Friday, April 2011 at Comex. Fears of inflation stemming from higher crude oil prices coupled with a weak dollar pushed up prices higher. Yellow metal once again touched record high while silver surpassed the $40 mark for the first time in three decades. Gold ended higher for fourth straight day. For silver, it was the fifth day of straight gains.



Generally, a stronger dollar pressures demand for dollar-denominated commodities, such as crude oil and gold, which become more expensive for holders of other currencies and also vice versa. But bullion metals have registered increase in prices despite strong dollar in recent times and vice versa.

Gold for June delivery rose $14.80, or 1%, to end at $1,474.1 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It touched a record high of $1,476.2 during intra day trading. This was a record close for gold. For the week, gold gained 3.2%.

For the year till date, gold is up by 3.7%. Gold ended the month of March higher by 2.1%. For the first quarter of FY 2011, gold ended higher by 1.3%. For the year of 2010, gold ended higher by 30%, its tenth consecutive yearly gain.

On Friday, silver prices for May delivery rose $1.06 (2.7%) to end at $40.61. For the week, silver gained 7.6%. Prices have gained 31% till date this year. Prices gained 12% in March 2011. Silver eked out a gain of 22% for the first quarter of this year. In FY 2010, silver ended higher by 83.7%.

Crude futures settled near $113 a barrel on Nymex on Friday amid supply concerns from oil-rich countries across the Middle East and North Africa and the weaker dollar. Higher oil prices additionally in recent times helped gold not only by heightening fears of inflation but also by pushing pan-commodities indexes higher.

In the currency market on Friday, the dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies, fell by 0.5%.