India gold futures may move sideways with a positive bias this week supported by a weak rupee and on safe haven buying, with formidable resistance at higher levels, analysts said. "We are looking at consolidation with a positive bias (in gold)," said Harish Galipelli, head of research with Karvy Comtrade in Hyderabad.
"Gold would consolidate before a move up," said Gnanasekar Thiagarajan, director with Commtrendz Research, adding support is pegged at 15,375-15,400 (rupees) and resistance is placed at 15,700.
"Technically it seems like gains from here on could be restricted and breaching the recent highs would be difficult unless rupee weakens aggressively or there is a massive rally in international gold prices," said Pradeep Unni, a senior research analyst with Richcomm Global Services in Dubai.
A weak rupee makes dollar-quoted yellow metal expensive.
The benchmark April contract MAUJ9 was 0.54 percent higher at 15,604 rupees per 10 grams at 4:05 p.m., after hitting a high of 15,628 earlier.
Gold futures on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) had struck an all-time high of 16,040 on Feb. 20 spurred by safe haven buying due to economic uncertainty.
Analysts said slack demand for the yellow metal could also cap the upside.
India's gold demand remained weak on Monday as prices hardened and buyers still stayed on the sidelines anticipating falls ahead, traders said. See [ID:nBOM478919]
"Fresh jewellery demand has been quite dull with incremental demand being met through refining of high quantity of scrap sales that has been entering the physical markets over the last two months," said Unni.
