Mumbai, Feb 22: Gold futures opened up on Friday, recouping some of the previous day's losses after touching all time highs, and analysts said they expected the metal to stay firm.

"After running up so high, gold could correct a little," said Jyoti Nangrani, technical analyst at Anand Rathi Commodities referring to Thursday's record high. "But probably it could reverse and aim for new highs again." Overseas spot gold remained close to its all time high of $953.60 an ounce touched on Thursday with investors piling it with funds. In the local market, the April contract on the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd touched its all time high level of 12,171 rupees per 10 grams.

Another analyst at IL&FS Investsmart Commodities Ltd held similar views and said the April gold on the MCX could range within 11,900 rupees and 12,175 rupees during the day. "Today being Friday there could be some profit taking, but gold's fundamentals are pretty good," the IL&FS analyst said.

Open interest for April gold on MCX was at 13,518 lots, down from 13,696 on Thursday. Volume the previous day was at 54.185 kg. Following are gold prices in rupees per 10 grams on the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd. at 10:50 a.m.