Gold dropped for the second day with prices falling further by R120 to R28,330 per 10 gm in the Capital on Tuesday, tracking a weak trend overseas amid slackened demand. Silver also lost R350 to R45,250 per kg on lack of buying support from industrial units and coinmakers. Traders said besides stockist selling, a weakening global trend where gold posted its biggest decline in almost seven months as Portug-uese banking concerns eased and equities gained, diminishing safe-haven demand. Gold in New York, which normally sets the price trend on the domestic front, fell 2.3% to $1,306.70 an ounce, the biggest loss since December 19 and silver by 2.5%, the most since April 15, to $20.91 an ounce in Monday?s trade.
Maharashtra truck drivers to go on strike
Truck drivers across Maharashtra will go on an indefinite strike from Wednesday, following failure of talks between the state and transporters’ bodies over abolition of escorts fee, All India Motor Transport Congress said. “It has been our pending demand that the state abolish escort fee. Escort fee was directly linked with octroi. If octroi has been abolished, it is illogical to have escort fee. Since the authorities have failed to pay heed, we have decided to go on a strike,” AIMTC president Bal Malkit Singh said. Nearly 20 lakh trucks are expected to strike. An escort is a person who accompanies a truck on behalf of a local municipal authority to ensure that goods entering an area are not off-loaded within that municipal limit without paying the requisite fees.
