It’s been elevated because Digi’s excellent posts backed by facts and numbers and not of PMC’s paste/ copy same old garbage.
In mean time latest on Gold :
“…During May, gold imports into China jumped to the second-highest level ever. Demand for physical gold in Asia is the strongest it has been in 30 years, with bargain hunters using the lower prices to secure jewellery and gold bars.
The demand has left many of Hong Kong’s banks, jewellers and even its gold exchange without enough yellow metal to meet demand.
The president of the Hong Kong Gold & Silver Exchange Society, Haywood Cheung, said the exchange had effectively run out of most of its holdings as members looked to meet a shortfall in supply amid rampant retail demand for gold.
“In terms of volume, I haven’t seen this gold rush for over 20 years,” he said. “Older members who have been in the business for 50 years haven’t seen such a thing.”
Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook, the world’s biggest jeweller by market capitalisation, reported that some stores in areas popular with mainland Chinese tourists had sold out of gold bars. It also stated that demand had not been this strong for gold products since the late 1980s.
At the same time, lines of people wanting to buy gold bars at Beijing’s largest gold store, Caibai, stretched as long as 10 metres last Friday.
Meanwhile, a week after the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) introduced night trading, trading volumes for gold and silver have jumped to record highs driven by a surge in investment and hedging demand.
Daily transactions for gold rose by nearly a quarter to a record of 595,642 lots on Thursday, versus an average of 483,529 lots in June. Daily volume for the silver contract surged roughly six-fold from a week ago to 2.23 million lots on Thursday.
Before after-hours trading was launched, investors in China, the world's second-largest gold importer, were often exposed to global price fluctuations in the U.S. and European markets.
The ShFE's extended hours run from 9:00 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. local time. Each lot of gold is 1,000 grams and that of silver is 15 kilogrammes.
In the meantime, premiums on gold and silver bullion in China have remained sharply higher than in the United States. Prices for gold of 99.99% purity on the Shanghai Gold Exchange were nearly $30 per ounce higher than London spot prices. Normal premiums in Shanghai are about $5 to $7 an ounce.
Recently, Albert Cheng, managing director for the Far East region of the World Gold Council said. "The current gold supply is getting increasingly constrained while the demand remains strong."
Cheng said gold jewellery factories in China are working at high levels of capacity and 24-hour shifts to meet the demand.
Scrap supply is also expected to fall this quarter as lower prices prevent customers from selling their old jewellery.
Premiums in Hong Kong, the main supplier for China, have also moved higher due to supply issues.
Dealers are mostly quoting $4 to $5.50 per ounce for gold kilo bars. One dealer told Reuters he was quoting an $8 premium. In Singapore, premiums are about $3….
…Recently, Brinks reported a massive decline in its gold inventories. The huge decline in Brinks inventories is being seen soon after a similar decline in JPMorgan’s gold inventories.
Brinks inventories have fallen from 570,000 ounces on July 3 to 257,000 ounces today, which is a drop of 313,000 ounces or 55% in just one week.
While these dwindling stocks in Comex may cause a major concern for investors who want delivery of the physical metal, any run on Comex stocks could result in a default, which would send the price of physical gold substantially higher.
The easy money policies by the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan also will help prop up gold prices and likely to prompt investors to seek a currency that is independent of the central banks, thus again luring in buyers of gold.
AI
