Gold prices decline for third time in last four days, silver rates fall too

Gold and silver prices in India fall for second consecutive day on Wednesday. Gold prices declined for the third time in the last four days. On Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) gold futures edged 0.06% lower to Rs 50,050 per 10 gram. Silver fell 0.08% to Rs 66,820 per kg. 

Though gold has recovered from lows of below Rs 48,000, it remains significantly lower than the August highs of Rs 56,200. Similarly, silver had also almost touched Rs 80,000 per kg in the same month.

On the contrary, gold prices jumped higher in international markets, particularly in the US which is reeling under the economic slump due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

However, the spot gold price for Tuesday (Rs 50380) was higher than this week's average of Rs 49842.86 by 1.08%. The price was higher than Monday's value of Rs 50370. The Indian spot gold price as on Tuesday was Rs 50380 which grew by 0.02%; the rate was lower than the global gold spot growth rate of 0.21%. The global spot price is 1881 dollars.

On Wednesday spot gold rose 0.2% to 1,863.83 dollar per ounce, while US gold futures fell 0.1% to 1,868.10 dollars. Silver rose 1% to 25.38 dollars an ounce.

Two commonly used terms when it comes to gold are spot gold and futures gold. So what does one imply when they use these terms, lets take a look.

Spot Gold 

- As the term implies, spot gold refers to trade in which gold is purchased immediately, i.e. on the spot. The price is determined immediately and both the product and cash are interchanged almost instantly.

Futures Gold

- Futures Gold refers to trade in which a transaction is executed on a particular date but the product delivery will take place only in the future, at an agreed upon day. Typically it means that you pay for the gold now, but will be able to take delivery only in the future.

Gold regained its strength as virus situation continued to worsen while central banks maintained dovish stance and governments continued with measures to support their economies. A new coronavirus strain in the UK has caused several countries around the world to shut their borders to Britain and drugmakers to scramble to test their Covid-19 vaccines against it.

Weekly Covid-19 infections rose by the highest since the pandemic began, with the United States reporting the most number of cases for any single country, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.