Gold futures on the COMEX Division of the New York Mercantile Exchange further hiked on Thursday to hit a one-week high, buoyed up by disappointing jobs data in the United States. However, silver ended its rising course and crept down in the day.
The most active gold contract for February delivery gained 1.2 dollars, or 0.1 percent, to close at 1,387 dollars per ounce.
Market traders noted that although the market was early weighed on by eased concerns over the EU debt problems after Spain and Portugal succeeded in convincing investors to buy their bonds, Thursday's weak jobs data in the U.S. acted as a strong support to gold market and pushed the price to the one-week high.
The U.S. Labor Department said that the number of U.S. workers filing new applications for jobless benefits jumped 35,000 last week to 445,000, the highest level in more than two months.
Silver futures for March delivery crept down 0.282 cents, or 0. 01 percent, to 29.263 dollars. Meanwhile, April platinum hiked 20. 1 dollars per ounce, or 1.11 percent, to 1,821.2 dollars.
