Dubai gold rate shoots up after Dh10 plus drop - in hours

Dubai: The Dubai gold rate has – once again – delivered a blow to shoppers’ hopes of further and sustained price drops. This morning, it has once again shot up to Dh359 a gram for 22K and even going up to Dh362.

All this after late last night, gold prices fell below Dh350 and looked all good to find its way to even Dh340. Then came the turnaround, adding to the extreme frustrations of shoppers and jewellers.

“It just doesn’t make sense for shoppers to even be thinking of buying gold on a day like today – or this week,” said a bullion trader. “In the last 24 hours alone, the Dubai gold rate has been up and down by Dh10-Dh12 on a gram basis.

“The message to shoppers? Unless there is a real reason to buy, just wait to see what rest of today and even next week brings in.”

Such wild price swings within hours is relatively rare in the gold commodity market. Just check these numbers.

In recent hours, bullion prices had gone through a steep fall to $3,120 an ounce levels - and it did look like that there was every chance for it to even move down to under $3,100.

But then came the turnaround, whereby it is now at $3,224. That's right, a good $100 up and - the most unfortunate part for shoppers - is that all this happened in hours.

"Usually, the up and down routine for gold was that it would take a day or so to play out," said an analyst. "This time, it's taken half a day."

By now, shoppers of the safe haven asset are used to seeing prices do the yo-yo.

But after a long gap, it did feel that gold's inflated levels were coming down. And that a Dubai gold rate around the Dh340 a gram mark would be just about the right level under the circumstances.

For now, they can only hope that it might happen, soon enough...