Gold suffers biggest fall, dips below 18k

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Gold prices nosedived by a whopping Rs 500 per ten grams to Rs 17,600, the steepest fall ever since the yellow metal started its record breaking journey here, on aggressive selling triggered by a sharp plunge in its prices in the overseas markets.

Silver too witnessed high amount of selling by stockists. "Domestic gold bore the brunt of a sharp fall in the yellow metal in the international markets as the dollar took a sudden u-turn by appreciating against basket currencies," traders said.

Ever since gold crossed the psychological 18-K level, the market started experiencing nervousness and resistance at higher levels due to its astronomical value, they added.

Pure gold
(99.9 purity) tanked by a margin of Rs 500 (like standard gold) per ten grams to end at Rs 17,690 from Rs 18,190 yesterday.

Silver ready (.999 fineness) dropped by Rs 265 per kg to finish at Rs 29,445 as against Rs 29,710 earlier.

In New York, gold futures crashed by 4 per cent on Friday sustaining their first major loss in a run that began early in November as the US dollar rose sharply after an upbeat US jobs data.

Gold for December delivery fell by $48.60 to end at $1,168.80 an ounce on the Comex Division of the NYMEX.

December silver fell by 60.6 cent to $18.496.