Gold price gains Rs650 per tola in Pakistan

• The bullion price settles at Rs125,100 per tola and Rs107,253 per 10 grams today.
• Gold dealers lament that despite wedding season, the local demand for bullion is extremely dismal.
• In the international market, gold prices rise by $20 per ounce to close at $1,788.

KARACHI: Gold price resumed its uptrend on Thursday after the precious commodity rose by Rs650 per tola and Rs557 per 10 grams in the domestic market.

The bullion price settled at Rs125,100 per tola and Rs107,253 per 10 grams today.

Speaking to Geo.tv, gold dealers lamented that despite the wedding season, the local demand for bullion is extremely dismal due to a “lack of purchasing power.”

One of the dealers mentioned that only slight demand can be seen in the market from investors who are keeping an eye on rupee-dollar parity.

In the international market, the gold prices rose by $20 per ounce to close at $1,788, boosted by a fall in the US dollar after the Federal Reserve decided to cease its pandemic-era bond purchases early next year.

The Fed on Wednesday paved the way for three interest rate hikes by the end of 2022 as the economy nears full employment and the US central bank copes with a surge of inflation.

That weighed on the dollar, which is down around 0.4% against its rivals, making gold cheaper for holders of other currencies.

"The main factor today is the performance of the US dollar," said Ricardo Evangelista, senior analyst at ActivTrades.

Moving forward, with the Fed meeting out of the way, the real impact of the Omicron coronavirus variant on economic activity is the big question mark for gold, Evangelista added.

Meanwhile, silver prices in the domestic market remained unchanged at Rs1,460 per tola and Rs1,251.71 per 10 grams.

— With additional input from Reuters