MCX gold, silver prices fall; base metals weak on demand outlook

Prices of precious metals, most base metals and crude oil fell sharply in MCX trade amid prevailing weak economic sentiment globally, profit booking and due to commodity specific factors.

Base metals

Copper futures expiring August 30 fell 1% to ₹791, falling to the lowest since the current contract came into existence in June. Worries over copper emanate mostly from China where the demand outlook continues to remain weak and surging refined copper export data caused worries of a global glut.

Zinc futures fell 1.2% to ₹250 again because of concerns in China where higher-than-expected production signalled demand for the metal is waning.

Lead was down a more modest 0.3%.

Precious metals

Gold and silver prices on MCX continued to fall after the Indian government cut custom duties on the precious metal, and tracking weakness in the precious metals globally where traders chose to book profits after the recent rise.

Silver also took it on the chin as US PMI data showed a contraction, indicating softness in industrial demand for the precious metal.

At 5 pm, gold was trading at ₹68,015, down 1.6% while silver slumped to ₹84,501, down 4.6%.

Energy

Crude oil fell tracking losses in international markets, amid ceasefire talks in the Middle East conflict, Kuwait saying it would ramp up production after a new find and continuing demand concerns from China. This offset positive data from the US where the latest inventories data showed a more than expected fall.

On the MCX, crude was trading at ₹6,458.

Economic calendar

Later this week, traders would eye the release of the US GDP data, and weekly jobless data, expected later today, and the core PCE index, which is the Federal Reserve’s preferred guage to track inflation.

GDP growth for the second quarter in the US is expected to come in at 2%, higher than the 1.4% in the preceding quarter.