Standard gold is just Rs 55 away from the Rs 10,000 level. Gold zoomed by a whopping Rs 215 per ten gram and close at a new high of Rs 9,945 per 10 grams on the bullion market here today due to frantic buying after the global prices touched 25-year high.Silver, however, lost early firmness on some late sell-off but closed smartly higher than yesterday.Standard gold (99.5 purity) shot up by Rs 215 at Rs 9,945 and pure gold (99.9 purity) by Rs 205 at Rs 9,990.In the global market, gold shot up by $6 per ounce to 25-year high of $682.50 per ounce as Iranian nuke dispute intensified and investors bought the yellow metal as a safe haven investment and a hedge against inflation, dealers said.Oil prices would skyrocket if Iran stopped supply and any rise in crude prices could cause inflation, a dealer said. Ready silver (.999 fineness), after a remarkably strong start at Rs 21,005, met with fresh profit-selling and dropped to end at Rs 20,900, still showing a gain of Rs 195 over the last close of Rs 20,705.There will be shakeouts and inexperienced investors will get kicked out, which will be healthy for the market. But we are staying in a bull market and have a long way to go,” said Robin Edwards, president of Sabre Fund Management.‘‘You need a tiny amount of global liquidity into precious metals to have a substantial impact, plus the dollar is an uncertain currency going forward,’’ he said, adding that precious metals were undervalued relative to other asset classes.Gold, which jumped to a record high of $850 in early 1980, has gained 32 per cent this year. Dealers said gold was seen as technically overbought but tension in the Middle East, high oil prices and a volatile dollar would underpin the metal.
