Gold price today: Spot, futures hit fresh record highs on aggressive central bank buying

Gold price today

Gold continues its uptrend, setting new all-time highs. The gold futures price on MCX hit an all-time high at Rs 1,38,307 per 10 grams of 24-Carat purity on December 23 (9:45 am IST).

The trading in futures involves standardised contracts to buy and sell the precious metal at a predetermined price. Its price is 1.14 percent up from their previous close.

The gold futures price previously peaked on MCX at Rs 1,36,744 as recorded on December 22.

The spot price of gold, where the physical precious metal is bought and sold for immediate delivery, continues to surge, too. Gold spot price stood just above $4,486 an ounce on Tuesday. The price is up 0.96 percent in a day and 4.28 percent in a week.

Meanwhile, the rupee stood at 89.697 against the U.S. dollar on Monday, representing a 0.15 per cent gain in a day and a 1.38 per cent decline in a week. The precious metal is on track to make its largest advances since 1979, when it also set a record number of highs.

Why are gold prices rising?

The Augmont Bullion report, released December 23, noted that gold futures contracts reached a new high of $4,440 for the 52nd time this year, marking a 66 per cent increase.

“This rise is being fueled by prolonged geopolitical tensions (Venezuela Blockade and Caribbean Naval Tension), aggressive central-bank buying, supply interruptions in Silver, and a global investing community more concerned about economic and political unpredictability,” the report stated.

The Augmont report predicts that if gold continues its bullish momentum, it can touch the next target of $4,500 with strong support at $4,330.

“The rally is being driven by strong expectations of a US rate cut and continued central bank buying, which is keeping bullish sentiment firmly intact. However, from a technical perspective, gold is now in an overbought zone, and a sharp bout of profit booking cannot be ruled out.

“This week, US data, including new home sales, the Core PCE price index, and weekly jobless claim will remain crucial triggers for further price direction," said Jateen Trivedi, VP Research Analyst - Commodity and Currency, LKP Securities.

Gold prices vary by purity. Check out below to see the prices of gold based on its purity

Source: Goodreturns

City-wise gold prices in India today

Gold rates across India’s major cities showed remarkable uniformity, with only marginal differences due to local taxes, jeweller margins, and logistics costs.

Source: Goodreturns

How to strategically add gold in portfolio?

According to the Augmont report, one of the major learnings from 2025 that should be applied to 2026 is that while uncertainty can take many forms, chronic worry surrounding tariffs, geopolitics, conflict, politics, government shutdowns, legislation, and so on has left investors feeling underexposed to gold.

When combined with gold's good price performance and lower correlations, we believe it is now more widely acknowledged as a strategic component of portfolios.

Historically, Wall Street recommended a 60/40 strategy, with 60 percent equities and 40 percent fixed-income investments (mainly bonds).

Given the changing market circumstances, most fund managers and analysts recommend that investors explore a 60/20/20 strategy, which involves swapping half of their bond portfolio for gold to act as a "more resilient" inflation hedge.

“The 60-20-20 allocation scheme has gained popularity and attention in the financial media. If the theory achieves popular acceptance, gold may reach new highs. With most portfolios' average gold allocation under 5 percent, investors would need to buy a lot more yellow metal to increase their gold holdings to 20 percent. This reflects gold's increased standing as a basic portfolio diversifier rather than a crisis hedge of last resort,” the report, citing Renisha Chainani, Head (Research), Augmont, stated.