NEW DELHI (Commodity Online): Gold continued its slide this week in India with the metal losing again on Friday. This is the longest losing streak in four years in the New Delhi bullion market.

Analysts said prices have been declining for more than a week now tracking the rates in global markets as the exchange value of US dollar against its rival currencies is rising. Dollar and gold move in opposite directions.

Standard gold and ornaments shed Rs 10 each at Rs 16,780 and Rs 16,630 per ten grams, respectively, on Fridya. However, sovereign added Rs 25 to Rs 14,025 per eight-gram piece. The metal has lost a total of Rs 425 in eight trading sessions.

Gold has lost Rs 425 in eight days in New Delhi. The longest losing streak before this was in June 2006 when the metal declined for nine days in a row.

There is hardly any physical buying in the market due to off season. Besides, a weakening global trend has further dampened the trading sentiment.

Meanwhile, the increase in import duty also added to the demand fall in India. In his budget, India’s finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had hiked the import duty on the yellow metal.

However, the gold traders have sought a rollback of the proposal. Mukherjee had announced a 50 per cent increase in custom duties on gold from Rs 200 to Rs 300 per 10 gm. Similarly, he had also announced to raise the customs duty on silver by 50 per cent from Rs 1000 to Rs 1500 per kg.

Traders said the hike in customs duties is likely to push up price of gold. According to gold traders, the price of gold in India is dependent on the international gold prices, but it is feared the domestic gold price will still escalate even if the global prices fall due to the hike in customs duty rate.