KUALA LUMPUR, May 22 — The gold futures market on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives is expected to stay quiet next week due to lack of buying support, said a dealer.

Phillip Futures Sdn Bhd dealer Carmen Yoon Kar Min said the physical gold price is expected to trade range-bound as sentiments remained cautious over a possible full lockdown in the country in the effort to curb the Covid-19 pandemic.

Malaysia’s daily newly confirmed Covid-19 cases dropped to 6,493 on Friday from a record high of 6,806 on Thursday.

Technically, Oanda senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley said, gold looks poised to test the resistance at US$1,890.00 (US$1 = RM4.13) an ounce (one ounce = 28.34 gram) and to be followed by US$1,900.00 an ounce.

"A move through US$1,900.00 is likely to spur option-related and algorithmic buying, pushing it to US$1,920.00 an ounce.

"Support lies at US$1,965.00 and US$1,953.00 an ounce. Only a failure of the significant support level and 200-day moving average at US$1,845.00 an ounce suggests the rally is over for now,” he said.

During the week just ended, local gold futures were untraded due to subdued demand for the precious metal.

On a last Wednesday-to-Friday basis, Bursa Malaysia’s gold futures contract for May 2021 stood at RM233.0 a gram, June 2021 remained at RM225.0 a gram, July 2021 was pegged at RM230.0 a gram and August 2021 stood at RM235.0 a gram.

Volume remained nil while open interest stood at eight contracts.

Meanwhile, the price of physical gold rose RM6.66 to RM241.53 a gram from last Friday’s RM234.87 a gram.

The market was closed last Thursday and Friday for the Hari Raya celebration. — Bernama