Chennai, July 23 (IANS): Gold prices slightly hardened on Thursday, going up by Rs.22 per gram, said an industry official.

"Gold price went up by Rs.22 per gram to Rs.2,380 Thursday from Wednesday's level. This is due to the weakening of Indian rupee against the US dollar," Jayantilal Challani, president of the Madras Jewellers and Diamond Merchants Association, told IANS here.

The price of 10 gram gold stood at Rs.25,400 on Thursday up from Wednesday's price of Rs.25,200, he said.

Challani said jewellery sales are good and people are not playing a wait and watch game, while jewellers will not stock up gold taking advantage of the lower price.

"All jewellers would daily buy gold equivalent to the volume of gold sold that day. We do not stock up the metal converting currency into gold," he said.

He said the gold price is expected to go down further.

In the Indian market, gold could fall in the range of Rs.23,500-Rs.24,000 considering the current rupee-dollar conversion rate, said Ravindra Rao, head, commodity research, AnandRathi Commodities Ltd in a recent report.