“People Running Through The Gate” To Buy Gold Bullion

Today’s AM fix was USD 1,379.00, EUR 1,046.12 and GBP 903.14 per ounce. 
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,378.00, EUR 1,054.00 and GBP 900.48 per ounce.

Gold rose $16.40 or 1.21% yesterday to $1,373.40/oz and silver also finished up 2.63%.

Cross Currency Table – (Bloomberg)

There are reports of very strong demand for coins and bars from buyers internationally who believe that the sell off that saw gold fall to a two-year low is overdone. 

Very significant demand is being seen throughout the world for physical bullion – in Japan, India, Australia, the U.S., Europe and elsewhere.  The speculative raid by one or two banks which led to the price crash is being seen as a gift by eager buyers internationally.

Gold in USD, Daily – (Bloomberg)

Gold sales from Australia’s Perth Mint, which refines nearly all of the nation’s bullion, surged after prices plunged, adding to signs that gold’s slump to a two-year low is spurring increased demand.

 “The volume of business that we’re putting through is way in excess of double what we did last week,” Treasurer Nigel Moffatt said by phone, without giving precise figures. “There’s been people running through the gate.”

The Perth Mint’s sales of gold coins climbed 49 percent to 97,541 ounces in the three months ended March 31 from a year earlier, according to data from the facility in Western Australia that was founded in 1899. 

Silver in USD, 1 Year – (Bloomberg)

“There’s been significant sales made as people see this as great value,” Moffatt said yesterday. “Gold owners are very reactive to significant market movements.”

We are the Perth Mint’s Approved Dealer in the European Union and have experienced a similar jump in demand yesterday and this morning. We saw massive selling on Monday as speculative buyers dumped positions in panic but yesterday came stabilization and there were more buyers than sellers. As the day progressed the demand for bullion increased and prices stabilised. 

Platinum, Daily – (Bloomberg)

Today has seen more buying than selling and what selling there is, is of unallocated gold with some of the sellers shifting to buying physical in an allocated account or for delivery.

Conversation with mints, refineries and other bullion dealers confirm a similar pattern with very significant physical demand being seen yesterday and today.

In Asia, the fall in gold has been greeted by physical buyers leading to a supply shortage of gold bars in both Hong Kong and Singapore.

Palladium, Daily – (Bloomberg)

Gold buyers in India, the world’s biggest consumer, are flocking to stores to buy gold jewelry, coins and bars. “This is a perfect time to buy as prices will only go up from here,” said Vishal Mehta, a 33-year-old garment dealer, while ordering coins according to Bloomberg. 

“I usually buy one gold coin a month, but this time I am buying two.”

In India, the world’s largest gold consumer, the plunge may make bullion more affordable, said Mehul Choksi, chief executive officer of Gitanjali Gems Ltd., the nation’s biggest retailer of jewelry and diamonds by sales. 

The same is being seen in Japan. Reuters report that Yujiro Yamashita, 63, made his way to Tokyo’s posh Ginza district to buy the precious metal for the first time in 20 years after he woke up to news of the fall in gold prices. 

Yamashita and other contrarian, individual Japanese investors understand that gold is a volatile investment, but say that buying the precious metal is better than the alternatives including the devaluing yen.

Japanese individual investors doubled gold purchases on April 16 at Tokuriki Honten Co., the country’s second-largest retailer of the precious metal.

Gold is headed much higher over the next decade, investor Jim Rogers said today, adding that he may start buying after a so-called selling climax. Gold was set for a correction and recent decline may be it, he said on Bloomberg Television.

Gold is now poised to move higher as the physical market reacts after the decline, according to HSBC Holdings Plc.

Gold’s drop has been excessive as there are still a lot of troubles out there according to UBS.