Chinese gold, silver face possible recovery

Chinese precious metal futures could rebound Monday after gold prices rallied in post-Asian trading Friday.

The February Comex gold future added 0.86 percent to finish the week at $1,660.10 per ounce. The contract rebounded after talks aiming to avoid the series of tax increases and budget cuts set to take effect next year in the US broke down Friday, Reuters reported.

This turn of events boosted demand for gold as a safe haven asset, especially following the recent decline in prices.

Spot gold had fallen to a four month low Thursday, according to Reuters.

Despite gold's jump, the Comex contract still finished the week down about 2.2 percent due to earlier losses.

The rally came too late to affect the Chinese mainland markets. The most traded gold contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) lost 1.42 percent Friday to end the week down 2.75 percent at 335.92 yuan ($53.87) per gram, or $1,675.50 per ounce.

The most traded SHFE silver contract, for June delivery, fared worse. The volatile contract plunged more than 4 percent Friday to finish the week down 7.29 percent at 6,334 yuan per kilogram.

Both contracts tend to follow the movements of their international counterparts, so they could get off to positive start Monday.

The March Nymex silver contract rose 1.7 percent Friday, yet still finished the week down more than 7 percent.

Despite the recent fall in precious metals this month, gold futures still have potential to rise due to demand for physical gold out of Asia, according to the commodity analyst team at the Australian bank ANZ.

"Given the pre-eminence of China and India, which account for 40 percent of global demand, and large markets ... elsewhere in Asia, we think the market should be looking there for direction," the team wrote in a research note Thursday.