The surge in the gold price last week has not resulted in increased buying of the precious metal by the world’s two biggest gold clients: China and India.
According to the Times of India, buyers have so far shown little interest in hitching their wagons to the gold rally.
On Thursday, the price of gold climbed nearly $70 an ounce as turmoil on world financial markets and global economic fears sparked a return to safe-haven buying.
Futures contracts in New York with April delivery dates jumped 5.8% to a high of $1,263.90 an ounce in massive volumes of nearly three times usual volumes. That moved gold into a bull market with gains topping 20% from the near six-year low struck mid-December. However by Friday, some of the rally had diminished, with gold futures slipping $7.10 to $1.240.60 an ounce.
While Australia’s Perth Mint had one investor order a million dollars worth of gold, it noted most of the interest is from Western clients. That is perhaps surprising given that Indian and Chinese buyers often swoop in to buy gold bars, coins and jewelry if they are confident of a sustained rally. On the contrary, despite offering a record discount of $40 to the global benchmark price, retail demand has “almost vanished” Times of India quotes one Mumbai-based jeweller. Discounts were also being offered in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Between them, China and India account for around 45 percent of world gold demand.
Meanwhile Dennis Gartman of The Gartman Letter was quoted on CNBC on Friday as saying that it might be a good idea to wait on gold.
Gartman told CNBC’s Squawk Box that gold is likely to correct before the Presidents’ Day holiday on Monday, on the back of rising U.S. equities, and could slide to between $1,215 and $1,225, at which point he might buy in.
Flickr image by sheetal saini
3 Comments
Altaf
We can safely assume that this is the high for gold. The recent hike in gold from 1070 to 1200+ is linked to the fall in oil. As soon as semblance is found in oil, people who bought gold as a safe heaven will quit. Exception : Indians and Chinese. Once bought, never to be sold 🙂
Rod B
The recent run-up on gold has a term: “bear trap”! The buyers of bulk gold will be back when prices near $1,000 per ounce. Look for that to happen in June-July. By end of August, we should see the sustained rally to $2,000, then a lag period before the run-up to $5,000…. It is coming…we will see.
Altaf
Gold at 5K!!! It just gives my thought process wings. What can cause gold to go up to 5K an ounce?
I came up with the below probabilities.
1. The whole world suddenly realize that there is no more gold in earth. What ever we identified is the last.
2. Few gold enthusiasts get extremely rich and buy up all the physical gold existing on planet and also the futures gold for the next 100 years.
3. Dollar to become cheaper by 5 times by next year 🙂