- Silver up nearly 2% after falling 10% in early Asian trade
- Silver headed for second straight weekly loss, down 15%
- CME raises margins for gold, silver on Thursday
Feb 6 (Reuters) - Gold and silver prices climbed on Friday as a rout in global stocks lifted demand for safe havens, with heightened volatility prompting U.S. exchange operator CME to raise margins again on precious metals to mitigate risks.
Spot gold rose 1.6% to $4,848.25 per ounce by 0758 GMT. U.S. gold futures for April delivery lost 0.4% to $4,870.10 per ounce.
Spot silver rose 1.7% to $72.44 an ounce after plunging about 10% in early Asian trade to below the $65 level, a more than six-week low. The metal plunged 19.1% in the previous session.
For the week, the white metal was down almost 15% after shedding 18% last week, its biggest weekly drop since 2011.
China's sole silver futures fund, UBS SDIC Silver Futures fund , slumped by its 10% daily limit on Friday, its sixth straight session of decline.
"There's all kinds of evidence that risk sentiment in general is weakening. In this environment, gold is kind of holding its own and silver is caving in under the risk-off," said Ilya Spivak, head of global macro at Tastylive.
Global equities extended losses into a third session as a selloff on Wall Street intensified, with precious metals and cryptocurrencies gripped by wrenching volatility.
"The correction in gold and silver prices came at the right time, just before Chinese New Year. So we could see more buying by Chinese consumers," said ANZ analyst Soni Kumari, adding that near-term volatility can continue until some unwinding of weak positions.
CME Group hiked margin requirements for gold and silver contracts on Thursday as the world's largest commodities exchange seeks to mitigate risks associated with heightened volatility.
Gold premiums in India also more than halved from decadal highs this week as price volatility deterred buyers.
Spot platinum lost 0.4% to $1,978.71 per ounce after hitting an all-time high of $2,918.80 on January 26, while palladium gained 0.5% to $1,624.25. Both were down for the week.
Reporting by Ishaan Arora and Noel John in Bangalore; additional reporting by Swati Verma; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Harikrishnan Nair and Sherry Jacob-Phillips
Source: Reuters