India: Gold Locked In Thin Trades, MCX Futures Hold Above Rs 25300 Levels

New Delhi-India (Dec 15)  MCX Gold is witnessing thin trading as not much of buying is emerging in global futures. Gold slipped by more than 1% in intraday moves yesterday as markets geared up fora critical week ahead and equities showed signs of skepticism. Stocks remained locked in acautious trade as investors looked ahead to this week's pivotal US monetary policymeeting. COMEX Gold failed to hold on near $1075 per ounce mark yet again and extendedlosses after breaking under $1070 per ounce mark. The counter currently trades at $1063per ounce, almost unchanged on the day. MCX Gold futures are trading at Rs 25332 per 10grams, down marginally on the day.

Meanwhile, Gold speculator and large futures traders increased their gold bullishpositions last week after five straight weeks of declining positions, according to thelatest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures TradingCommission (CFTC) on Friday. The non-commercial futures contracts of Comex gold futures,traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of +19,623 contractsin the data reported through December 8th. This was a weekly change of +9,873 contractsfrom the previous week.

The rise in the weekly net speculator positions was due to a gain in the weekly bullishpositions by 3,972 contracts that combined with a decrease in the weekly bearish positionsby -5,901 contracts. In the commercial positions for gold on the week, the commercials(hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes) raised theiroverall bearish positions to a net total position of -13,997 contracts through December8th. This was a weekly change of -11,086 contracts.

Source: IndiaOnlind