Gold retreats from 7-week high; silver drops

Mumbai: Gold prices declined modestly from its7-week high at the domestic bullion market here on April 7 due to reduced off-take from stockists and retailers amid lacklustre overseas cues. Silver also fell sharply on the back of heavy unwinding by speculative traders.

Standard gold (99.5 purity) slipped by Rs 95 to end at Rs 26,745 per 10 grams from Monday's level of Rs 26,840. Pure gold (99.9 purity) also moved down by a similar margin to settle at Rs 26,895 per 10 grams as against Rs 26,990. Silver (.999 fineness) slumped by Rs 480 to finish at Rs 38,340 per kg from Rs 38,820 on April 6.

On the global front, the yellow-metal turned weak after scaling fresh multi-week highs on strong dollar value, but growing uncertainty over the US interest rate hike kept the metal to hold the key USD 1,200 an ounce mark. Spot gold was bid lower at USD 1,209.00 an ounce in early European trade.