Gold and silver prices turn volatile

Precious metals started the new year 2026 with a bang, with both gold and silver reaching fresh all-time highs in January. The price action, however, turned hugely volatile in the past few trading sessions with precious metals prices cooling off by almost 10% off the recent highs.

Comex Gold zoomed past the psychological $5,000-mark and reached a fresh high of $5,626.8 on January 29.

Gold price, however, sold off sharply thereafter to end the month at $4,907.5, representing a 13.3% gain.

The price action in Comex Silver was no different with the white metal reaching a record high of $121.8 before settling at $85.25 at the end of the month. This represents a gain of 20% last month.

Turns volatile

Mirroring the trend in the global markets, the MCX Gold price, too, turned volatile towards the end of the month after having hit record highs a few days ago. MCX gold closed at ₹1,50,849 per 10-grams at the end of January, after having recorded a high of ₹1,93,096 on January 29. MCX Gold gained 8.3% last month while MCX Silver gained 23.7% last month to settle at ₹2,91,922 per kilogram.

Stay range bound

The anticipated cool off in precious metals price materialised towards the end of January. The price of Comex Gold is likely to remain range bound in the $4,400-$5,650 in the near term. A clear trending move is likely to materialise only if the price clears the boundaries of this anticipated zone of $4,400-$5,650.

The long-term trend remains positive and the gold price could resume uptrend once the anticipated consolidation or pull back phase is over. Comex Silver price too cooled off from the highs, but the price moved up way beyond earlier expectations. The recent price action suggests that the price could remain stuck in a broad range of $75-$110.

Local gold prices

In the domestic market, gold price turned volatile in the past few trading sessions, mimicking the trend in the international market. The recent price action indicates that the domestic gold price could oscillate in the ₹1,45,000-₹1,90,000 range. Expect back and forth movement within this zone for the next few weeks.

MCX Silver, too, sold off rapidly after having reached a high of ₹4,20,048 per kilogram. Similar to gold, MCX Silver, too, is likely to remain in a range. The price is likely to move back and forth in the ₹2,40,000-₹3,85,000 zone. Only a breakout from the extremes of this zone would set the tone for the next big directional move. Until then, expect volatile price action within this broad zone. To summarise, gold and silver have cooled off from the overbought zone. The price action is likely to be confined to a broad trading range for next several weeks.

(The author is a Chennai based analyst/trader. The views and opinions featured in this column are based on the analysis of short-term price movement in gold and silver futures at COMEX & Multi Commodity Exchange of India. This is not meant to be a trading or investment advice.)