Gold traders extend buying as rupee helps.

MUMBAI: India gold buying continued a pick-up from last week to Monday afternoon as traders booked deals to take advantage of a strong rupee, which made the dollar-quoted asset cheaper, dealers said.

"There is good buying at current levels as the dollar/rupee has fallen, which us helping demand," said a dealer with a bullion-dealing state-run bank in Mumbai.

International gold, which guides the domestic market, was trading at $1,181.65/1,182.65 an ounce at 2:25 p.m. as against the previous close of $1,181.5/1,182.5 an ounce. "Last week was good, we did good volumes from 27th onwards," said another dealer with a private bank. "All our orders got filled on Friday itself and by evening there should be a lot of advance orders," said the state-run bank dealer.

The Indian rupee strengthened to its highest level in more than a month as banks sold dollars on the back of early gains in local shares, with stronger regional currencies also boosting sentiment.

Provisionally, India's gold imports for July stood at 14-15 tonnes, down from 28.4 tonnes in the year-ago period, but a late spurt in demand has raised chances of an upward revision.

Indian gold demand is set to pick up for the busy festival season, starting with Raksha Bandhan on Aug 24, and extending till Dhanteras in November, the single-biggest gold buying day

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com