Kathmandu, April 9

The price of precious metals went up marginally in the domestic market in the trading week of April 3 to 8. Precious metals have been hemmed into a narrow range by uncertainty about the path the US central bank will take to raising interest rates.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen, in a conversation with former Fed chairmen on Thursday, said the US economy is still on track to warrant further rate rises. But US interest rate futures still indicate a less than 20 per cent chance of a rate increase in June, Reuters reported.

Higher rates would weigh on gold by lifting the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.

Waning expectations for further rate increases this year helped gold to its best quarter in nearly 30 years in the three months to March.

In the domestic market, gold price saw rise of Rs 500 or 0.92 per cent per tola over the six trading days.

The market opened with gold price fixed at Rs 54,000 per tola. On Monday, the price of the precious yellow metal dropped by Rs 200 a tola to Rs 53,800 per tola and remained the same on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the bullion price rose by Rs 300 per tola to Rs 54,100 a tola and was unchanged on Thursday. On Friday, gold price again went up by Rs 400 a tola to Rs 54,500 per tola.

Similarly, silver recorded a gain of five rupees or 0.7 per cent per tola during the review period.

Silver was priced at Rs 710 per tola on Sunday. On Monday, its price dipped by five rupees a tola to Rs 705 per tola and remained constant on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the white metal recovered the loss by edging up five rupees a tola back to Rs 710 per tola and was traded at the same price on Thursday.

On Friday, it nudged up by another five rupees per tola to close the week at Rs 715 a tola.