Reflecting a bullish trend, gold for February delivery on MCX was up ₹105 at ₹62,559 per 10 grams, while the April contract gained ₹97 per 10 grams to ₹62,920 on Friday. In the international market, prices were flat at about $2,035 per ounce.Ajay Kumar, Director, Kedia Commodities, said the long-term view on gold remains bullish and may test $2,440 an ounce by end of next year.
However, he said in the near-term there may be a pull-back as the market has already priced in all the positive events supporting gold prices. Moreover, global investors would prefer to book profit at higher levels before going on Christmas holidays, he added.
Though the US Fed kept interest rates unchanged in the last meeting, the commentary by the central bank was dovish. The US central bank officials unanimously decided to leave the target range for the benchmark federal funds rate at 5.25 per cent to 5.5 per cent, the highest since 2001.
Interestingly, policymakers have not made any projections on further interest-rate hikes for the first time since March 2021, based on the median estimate.