Commodities » Precious Metals

Gold and silver daily review (March 08, 2010)

Contributed by Nirmal Bang

By Nirmal Bang

MARKET ROUNDUP

Gold ended slightly higher on Friday as the sovereign debt crisis in Greece spurred buying of the metal to hedge against currency volatility.

IN FOCUS

- The world's largest gold-backed exchangetraded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, said its holdings stood at 1,116.120 tonnes as of March 5, up 0.609 tonnes from the previous business day.

- The world's largest silver-backed exchangetraded fund, the iShares Silver Trust, said its holdings fell 3.46 tonnes from the previous business day to 9,473.45 tonnes as of March 5.

- Dubai's gold import volumes in 2009 totalled 576 tonnes, a 15 percent decline compared to a year earlier, a statement from the Dubai Commodities Centre said on Sunday.

- French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised Greece on Sunday that euro zone countries would help it overcome its financial problems and vowed a European crackdown on financial speculators Athens blames for its woes.

- China flagged on Saturday it will let the yuan resume its rise at some point as it unwinds the super-loose policies it has been pursuing to prop up the world's third-largest economy.

FUNDAMENTAL OUTLOOK

- Gold ticked higher in early trade session on firmer euro after ending about $20 higher last week as a sovereign debt crisis in Greece ignited safe haven buying, which also sent europriced bullion to record. We have EZ Sentix index data to be released in the adfternoon session; any optimism in the data is likely to provide some support to euro thus supporting precious metals prices.