Gold futures retreated on Thursday due to pressure from a stronger dollar and concerns about a decline in demand from India, the world's largest consumer of the metal, The Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the news outlet, gold for April delivery, the most actively traded contract, dropped $19.90 to $1,630.40 an ounce, marking a decline of 1.2 percent for the commodity.
The Journal reports that India's move to raise import duties and excise taxes on gold also continued to influence the precious metals market. Lawmakers from the Asian nation doubled the import duty on gold to 4 percent, along with introducing a 0.3 percent incise tax on unbranded jewelry made of the commodity, currently 90 percent of the market in the country.
According to the news outlet, Standard Bank noted that "Indian buying [is] still relatively lackluster as participants contemplate how to cope with the higher import duties."
Bloomberg News reports that the rise of the dollar also pushed the metal down, as the greenback rose to the highest level in almost a week against a six-currency basket that includes the euro and the yen.
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