High duty may extend slack season for gold, keep prices in check for now

The sharpest increase in the import duty on gold by the Centre saw the yellow metal’s price rising sharply in the domestic market on Friday.  The government had hiked basic Customs duty on gold by 5 percentage points via a notification on June 30. Gold domestic futures jumped by about 3 per cent to over Rs 52,000 per 10 gram in initial trading.

By evening, it was trading 2.2 per cent higher at Rs 51,620, while the spot price in Mumbai closed 1.83 per cent higher at Rs 51,584.  Interestingly, experts said the price rise should have been higher but