Gold prices hit record high, cross ₹60,000 mark for the first time. Buy, sell or hold?

Gold prices soared to touch a fresh lifetime high on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) on Monday after banking crises in the US and Europe triggered a return to haven buying. The yellow metal price on MCX crossed the ₹60,000-mark per 10 grams for the first time during Monday's trade.

MCX Gold futures were trading at ₹60,280 at around 12:55 pm, up by ₹897 or 1.51 per cent. MCX silver prices also rose and were trading at ₹69,100 per kg, up by ₹599 or 0.87 per cent at 1:23 pm.

"Gold prices hitting a fresh high is a sign of slower economic growth and lower interest rates with ample liquidity to help the system steer of the current situation," said Colin Shah, MD, Kama Jewelry.

"We expect gold to gain further and touch new highs in the next few months. Domestically, it is expected to trade in the range of ₹61,000-62,000/ 10gm. Internationally, it may scale levels of $2,050-2100/oz," Shah said.

“Gold is expected to do well in near term because gold has tailwinds from US Dollar. Gold has negative correlation with USD Index. Gold does well when USD Dollar Index falls. US Dollar Index has been falling since 22 October and accordingly gold price has been going up since 22 October. The trend is expected to continue because we expect US Fed to cut rates in 2023 after the Silicon Valley bank Crisis and this will weaken the US Dollar Index further. So hopefully, Gold will do well in coming months,” said Dr Mukesh Jindal, Co-Founder of Alpha Capital.

"Gold is likely to trade with a positive bias for the day amid drop in US treasury yields across curve and weak US dollar. Further, demand for safe haven may increase on fears over a contagion risk despite a rescue deal for Credit Suisse and support from global central banks. MCX gold is expected to continue its upward trend towards the level of 59700," said brokerage house ICICI Direct Reserach.

MCX silver prices are likely to continue their upward trend towards the level of 69,300, as per ICICI Direct.

Gold in international market

In international market, gold rose above $2,000 an ounce for the first time in more than a year.

"The race to reassure markets over the recent global financial instabilities continues... with UBS' rescue deal for Credit Suisse aiding to calm some nerves and supporting some unwinding of safe-haven flows in gold," said Yeap Jun Rong, market analyst at IG.

Bullion surged 6.5 per cent last week in its biggest advance since the early days of the pandemic in March 2020 amid growing fears over Credit Suisse Group AG and as several regional American lenders collapsed.

It gave up some of those gains early today in the wake of an announcement that UBS Group AG had agreed to buy the Swiss lender in an emergency, government-brokered deal, but then started rising again later in the session.

Spot gold rose 0.6 per cent to $2,000.37 an ounce as of 3:23 pm in Singapore. The last time bullion traded above the psychologically important $2,000 mark was on 10 March last year.