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Physical gold dealers in India charged premiums this week for the first time in nearly two months as a pullback in domestic prices lured buyers, while premiums in top consumer China slipped.
Indian dealers charged a premium of up to $5 an ounce over official domestic prices – inclusive of 15% import and 3% sales levies, versus last week’s $15 discount.
“Buyers had been waiting for a price correction for many weeks. The recent drop in prices prompted some of these buyers to make purchases,” said a New Delhi-based jeweller.
In India, the world’s second-largest gold consumer and a major importer, domestic prices fell to 70,202 rupees per 10 grams this week, after hitting a record high of 73,958 rupees earlier this month.
Jewellers were making purchases after a long time, but supplies were tight due to negligible imports in the last few weeks, forcing buyers to pay a premium, said a Mumbai-based dealer with a private bullion importing bank.
In China, dealers charged premiums of $20-$35 per ounce over benchmark prices, down from the $30-$50 premiums seen last week.
“Chinese consumers, institutional investors, and even the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) may be buying gold, pushing prices upwards,” said Bernard Sin, regional director, Greater China, at MKS PAMP.
“The PBOC have verbally opposed the recent rally in long-term government bonds and are reluctant to issue new gold import quotas,” Sin added.
China’s gold consumption in the first quarter of 2024 climbed 5.94% from a year earlier on soaring safe-haven demand, the country’s Gold Association said on Friday.
In Singapore, premiums charged were anywhere between $1.25 and $2.50, while dealers in Hong Kong charged premiums of $0.50 to $2.50.
In Japan, dealers sold gold at $0.5-$1 premiums, the same as last week.
Traders in Tokyo noted that demand was strong, driven by local investors, who think gold prices could go higher and were ready to buy on any further dips as well.
($1 = 83.4682 Indian rupees)
(By Sherin Elizabeth Varghese, Harshit Verma, Brijesh Patel and Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Sonia Cheema)
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