Mumbai: The Reserve Bank which bought a whopping 200 ton gold for $6.7 billion from IMF in 2009, can go in for more purchase of the precious metal, a central bank working paper said. "India''s purchase of gold as a diversification strategy is fully justified and is in line with the global trend and still there is scope to increase its holding," it said. The gold holding of the Reserve Bank of India increased to 557.7 ton after accretion of 200 ton in 2009. In India''s case, it said, while foreign reserves increased substantially over the years, the physical stock of gold as part of official reserves, however, remained stable. Eventually, gold''s proportion in the total foreign reserves came down sharply. In fact, even with the latest purchase of gold by the Reserve Bank, gold accounted for just around 7.9 per cent of the forex reserves. The findings of the study show that central banks in most of the emerging market economies (EMEs) and advanced economies had either bought fresh stock of gold or stopped selling their existing stock of gold in the wake of the recent global crisis. Further, it stated that India''s purchase of gold apparently did not have any impact on the gold price trend and hence the stock of gold is in line with the global accumulation trend. India''s recent purchase of 200 tonnes of gold, apparently, did not cause any aberration on the international gold price trend, probably as gold was not bought from the open market, it added. It is difficult to address the ''optimum level of gold'' for India, though there is a strong economic rationale to hold sufficient quantity of gold as part of official reserves, especially during uncertain periods like global financial crisis, the study added.