India gold futures extended gains Friday on continued flight-to-safety buying amid sagging equity markets, but a firm rupee kept a lid on gains, analysts said.
"The way stock markets have tanked has resulted in risk aversion in favour of gold," said Gnanasekar Thiagarajan, director of Commtrendz Research in Mumbai.
Weak equity markets typically leads investors to gold, which is seen as a safe-haven asset.
Gold would face 'good resistance' at 15,650-15,675 and will have to clear 15,780-15,800 rupees in order to revisit its recent record high, Thiagarajan added.
Gold futures had witnessed an all-time high of 16,040 rupees per 10 grams on Feb. 20 as investors turned to the yellow metal amid the deepening global recession.
The benchmark April contract was 0.76 percent higher at 15,514 rupees per 10 grams at 11:09 a.m., after hitting a high of 15,539 rupees earlier.
A firm rupee makes dollar-quoted precious metal cheaper. The Indian rupee strengthened after opening lower on Friday as gains in other Asian currencies against the dollar boosted sentiment even as the domestic stock market dropped more than 1.5 percent early.
"The bias is still positive," said Harish Galipelli, head of research with Karvy Comtrade, adding gold may trade in the range of 15,250-15,550 rupees for the day.
"We might see some consolidation for next two to three weeks in the range of 14,800-16,000," said Galipelli.
Open interest in April gold on MCX was at 17,509 lots, up from 17,435 a day earlier. Volume on Thursday was 62.18 kg.
