Kathmandu, October 28

The price of precious metals eased after the European Central Bank (ECB)’s stance lifted the dollar in the week between October 22 and 27.

The ECB said on Thursday that it would halve its bond purchases to 30 billion euros ($35 billion) a month from January, but extended the programme by nine months and kept the door open for possible further extensions in time and amount.

According to analysts, the main hurdle for gold now remains the US dollar.

Early next week, US President Donald Trump is expected to reveal his nomination to lead the Fed for the next four years. After months of speculation, the two frontrunners are former Federal Reserve governor Jerome Powell and Stanford economist John Taylor.

Analysts say the nomination could be gold’s saving grace if Taylor, who is seen as the most hawkish among the candidates, does not get the presidential nod. “Markets see Powell as the least disruptive of the candidates and would be the mostly like to create stability in the marketplace as he would maintain the current monetary policy.”

However, no matter who leads the Fed, the risk is that market interest rates are underpricing future interest-rate hikes. A repricing of further monetary policy action would be bearish for gold.

Moreover, the latest report on US gross domestic product, which showed three per cent growth in the third quarter, shows improvement in the US economy, which supports more monetary-policy tightening from the Federal Reserve, ultimately pushing bond yields higher along with the US dollar.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association (FeNeGoSiDA), the end of the festive season has also curbed the demand for precious metals.

FeNeGoSiDA had set gold price at Rs 56,000 per tola when the market opened for trading on Sunday. Gold price dropped by Rs 200 a tola to be traded at Rs 55,800 per tola on Monday. Bullion price edged up by Rs 100 a tola to be traded at Rs 55,900 per tola on Tuesday but fell by Rs 200 a tola the next day to be priced at Rs 55,700 per tola. The yellow metal was traded at the same rate on Thursday before dropping by Rs 200 a tola again to close the week at Rs 55,500 per tola on Friday.

Similarly, the federation had set silver price at Rs 765 a tola on Sunday and its price remained stable for the next two days. The price of grey metal dipped by five rupees per tola to be traded at Rs 760 a tola on Wednesday and remained stable on Thursday. On Friday, however, silver price dipped by five rupees per tola again to end the week at Rs 755 a tola.