Kathmandu, June 16

The price of precious metals rose in the trading week between June 10 and 15 with the Indian currency remaining weak vis-à-vis US dollar, according to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association (FeNeGoSiDA).

“The increased attraction of investors towards the precious yellow metal also attributed to rise in the gold price,” FeNeGoSiDA General Secretary Dharma Sundar Bajracharya said in a statement.

According to the federation’s price list, gold was traded at Rs 58,600 per tola when the market opened on Sunday. Its price dipped by Rs 100 a tola to Rs 58,500 per tola on Monday. Bullion price remained stable for the next two days. On Thursday, the price of the precious yellow metal rose by Rs 100 a tola to Rs 58,600 per tola and went up again by Rs 400 a tola to Rs 59,000 per tola on Friday.

Silver was priced at Rs 780 a tola on Sunday and its price went up by five rupees per tola to Rs 785 a tola on Monday. Its price was

unchanged for the next two days. On Thursday, the price of the grey metal inched up by five rupees per tola to Rs 790 a tola and ascended by Rs 10 per tola on Friday to close the week at Rs 800 a tola.

Earlier in the week, the gold market was able to hold its ground around the critical psychological level of $1,300 an ounce, despite hawkish sentiment from the Federal Reserve after it raised rates by 25 basis points.

Markets had anticipated the rate hike but the Federal Reserve also signalled that it forecasts two more rate hikes this year, one more than markets were expecting. The US central bank also raised its forecasts for economic growth and saw a lower unemployment rate for the year.

However, the gains were short-lived as markets digested dovish comments following the European Central Bank’s monetary policy meeting. While Mario Draghi said that the ECB is ready to stop its bond-purchase programme at the end of the year, he surprised markets by saying that the central bank won’t look at raising rates until at least the summer of 2019.

His statement was interpreted on Friday by many economists as being dovish, which sent the euro dramatically lower against the US dollar. The euro is a significant component in the US Dollar Index, which is trading at its highest level since November 2016.

In the international market, gold deepened losses after President Donald Trump on Friday announced that the United States will implement a 25 per cent tariff on $50 billion of goods from China and Beijing quickly said it would hit back with its own tariffs, Reuters reported.

Analysts had expected gold to be bolstered by the prospects of a trade war.

However, the International Monetary Fund had said on Thursday that Trump’s new tariffs threatened to undermine the global trading system, would prompt retaliation by other countries and damage the US economy.