Bullions metals shine and end at two-week highs

Prices move up following Fed Chairman's comments Bullion metal prices ended higher on Monday, 26 March 2012 at Comex. Comex gold futures ended the U.S. day session with good gains and near the daily high as prices touched a fresh two-week high. The market saw some bargain hunting after an early price dip on Monday, after solid gains posted on Friday. Commodity markets, including the precious metals, were given a booster shot on Monday morning when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke ostensibly put another quantitative easing package back on the table. Gold for April delivery ended higher by $23.2 or 1.4%, to end at $1,685.6 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday. Prices shed 1.7% on the month of February 2012. On Monday, silver prices for May delivery ended higher by $0.48 or 1.5% at $32.75. Silver gained 6.5% during February 2012. Gold and silver prices were under modest selling pressure early Monday and started to turn around following Bernanke's speech to an economic group. Ahead of the opening bell, Bernanke said it's not yet certain that the recent pace of improvement in the nation's labor market will be sustained. In a speech to business economists, Bernanke said gains in the labor market since last fall could be due to the reversing of large layoffs from earlier in the recession, and that faster economic growth may be the key to further improvements. The Fed chief also said the U.S. economy still could sputter and needs to show continued growth. He also hinted that accommodative Fed monetary policy is still needed to keep the U.S. economic wheels greased. This led to speculation of a third round of quantitative easing of U.S. monetary policy. In the currency market on Monday, the Dollar Index, which weighs the strength of dollar against basket of six other currencies fell by almost 0.45%. Generally, a stronger dollar pressures demand for dollar-denominated commodities, such as crude oil and gold, which become more expensive for holders of other currencies and also vice versa. But bullions have registered increase in prices despite strong dollar in recent times and vice versa. Among economic data expected for the day, The National Association of Realtors in US reported on Monday, 26 March 2012 that pending home sales dipped slightly in February to 96.5% last month from 97.0% in January, although it's still 9.2 percentage points above its year-ago level. By region, pending home sales rose 6.5%% in the Midwest, but dropped 3.0% in the South, 2.6% in the West and 0.6% in the Northeast. At the MCX, gold prices for April delivery closed higher by Rs 268 (0.95%) at Rs 28,367 per ten grams. Prices rose to a high of Rs 28,396 per 10 grams and fell to a low of Rs 28,102 per 10 grams during the day's trading. At the MCX, silver prices for May delivery closed higher by Rs 648 (1.1%) at Rs 57,731/Kg. Prices opened at Rs 57,056/kg and rose to a high of Rs 57,930/Kg during the day's trading.