Gold futures gained on Thursday despite rising concerns over Greece’s debt situation. Gold futures contract for August delivery gained 0.2 percent or $3.70 to close at $1,529.90 per ounce at Comex trading session of New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract touched the day’s high of $1,534 per ounce.

Most of analysts believe the market seems divided on precious metals. Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou said in his recent comments that he intends to form a new government that would support austerity measures.

Analysts from Commerzbank commented, “The debt crisis in Greece has widened into a political crisis and Greek insolvency is becoming increasingly likely, the current very high level of uncertainty is still causing risk aversion of market players to rise and gold is profiting accordingly.”

Other base metals remained bearish as manufacturing activity in Philadelphia declined to its lowest in 31 months. According to Philadelphia’s Federal Reserve, manufacturing index dropped -7.7 in June as compared to 3.9 in May.

On the other hand jobless claims dropped by 16,000 to 414,000 for the week ended June 11^th, 2011.

Copper futures contract for July delivery dropped 0.1 percent or $0.01 to $4.12 per pound whereas silver futures contract gained 0.4 percent or $0.15 to $35.56 per ounce.

Platinum futures contract for July delivery plunged 0.8 percent or $13.50 to $1,760.70 per ounce while palladium futures contract for September delivery dropped 1.6 percent or $12.50 to $763.50 per ounce.