Spot gold buyers in India on Wednesday turned to scrap gold that is being offered at a discount to prices offered by banks, the primary dealers of bullion, traders said. Easing domestic prices also boosted buying, they added. "I covered all deals meant for exports at $1,400 (an ounce), traders prefer to buy from the local market due to a discount of 2,000 rupees per kg," said a dealer with a state-run bullion importing bank. International gold was trading at $1,408.65/1,409.30 an ounce as against the previous close of $1,391.99/1,393.40 an ounce, still down 1.1 percent from the all-time high of $1,424.10 an ounce struck in the previous session. While MCX gold was trading at 20,342 rupees per 10 grams, down 1.1 percent from the all-time high of 20,569 rupees struck in the previous session. Traders expect gold buying in India, which gained momentum despite higher prices during last week's Dhanteras and Diwali festivals, to continue on account of wedding. The sales figures for the festival week haven't been computed yet, but the World Gold Council expects gold sales in the week to Nov. 6 to rise by up to 40 percent from 56 tonnes in the year-ago period. Jwellers in India record the highest gold sales on Dhanteras and Diwali is considered auspicious for buying the yellow metal.

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