Precious metals end at session highs

Bright day for bullions as debt default concerns linger

Precious metals continued on the uptrend that began on Friday, 15 July 2011 and ended at session highs. Gold futures finished at a record high Friday, as lingering concerns over the potential for U.S. and euro-zone debt defaults helped prices tally a nine-session gain of nearly $108 an ounce.

Gold for August delivery rose 80 cents to close at $1,590.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold ran to session highs of $1592.40/oz and remains near that level in electronic trade. Gold scored a gain of 3.2% for the week. Gold struck record highs quite a few times this week.

Silver saw the same uptrend and finished the day 1% higher at $39.07/oz on Friday.

In the currency market on Friday, the dollar index, which measures the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies, stayed steady and ended flat for the day.

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.

The Commerce Department in US reported on Friday, 15 July 2011 that the consumer-price index fell a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in June, matching expectations on Wall Street. CPI dropped as gasoline prices fell 6.8%. Energy costs sank 4.4%, the largest decline since December 2008 as the price of gas and household electricity decreased. Excluding the energy sector, prices rose 0.2% in June.