India gold futures traded lower on Tuesday on sustained selling pressure, and domestic buyers trickled in to stock gold at dips ahead of second phase of wedding season starting Wednesday, traders and dealers said.
"We saw good demand yesterday evening at $815-830 (an ounce)," said Pinakin Vyaas, chief manager - treasury with IndusInd Bank in Mumbai, adding a few stray deals were witnessed earlier in the day as well.
"The attitude (of traders) is to buy on dips," Vyaas added.
The benchmark gold February contract MAUG9 traded 94 rupees lower at 12,900 rupees per 10 grams at 2:06 p.m., after falling 3.2 percent in the previous three sessions.
Traders will have plan their inventory for the second phase of wedding season, dealers said.
India's first phase of wedding season was from October to mid-December, with an inauspicious period called 'malmaas' from mid December to mid January. The second phase will now last till May.
"There is interest coming in to meet up inventories," said Vyaas.
The off-take has just started after a lull of almost a month, said Ranjeeth Rathod, director with Chennai-based gold trader MNC Bullion.
India's precious metals traders were struggling to get supplies from August to October as global banks had reduced their gold exposure due to credit crisis.
Banks and traders have enough quantity of gold to meet demand this time around, Rathod added.
