KARACHI: Gold-Futures speculation and noticeable buying kept yellow metal price firm during last three successive trading sessions, metal traders said. However buyers in international and domestic market indulged in Futures-output related buying, they added. The leading traders said the metal has been witnessing continuous correction phase with price upward trend. But all depends on Futures outlook of hedgers and gold speculators who are controlling over baseline value of yellow metal, said metal experts. Gold prices would remain in green in the next couple of weeks when gold was expected to get expensive substantially by Rs 900 to Rs 1,200 per tola on private buyers and retailers’ demand. The gold trading closed at $1,295 an ounce in international market with $9 an ounce rise in price. In domestic market yellow metal gained Rs 492 per tola to stay at Rs 51.165 per tola while in term of grammage it close at Rs 43,912 per ten grams with a gain of Rs 336 per ten grams, traders said. The gold price remained in the hands of manipulators in India, Pakistan and other major gold buying countries, as they remained busy influencing current prices and Futures on speculations. The potential buyers in India and Pakistan remained busy in hedging. However the gold hedgers made some cautious deals. The general buyers remained on sidelines anticipating further easing in price in coming days on dollar-rupee parity. Buyers made deals according to their immediate needs. Local trading in gold remained dull on back of insignificant buying. Local dealers said the domestic gold prices decline/rising is depending in line with the trend of global gold markets. But, the increase is usually not as much as takes place internationally because people stop buying the metal when prices are too high. Published in Daily Times, August 19th 2017.