Gold Climbs as Higher Physical Demand Counters Decline From ETPs

By Glenys Sim

Gold advanced, trimming the worst monthly loss since December 2011, as demand for physical metal countered outflows from bullion-backed exchange-traded products. Silver climbed.

Bullion for immediate delivery rose as much as 0.7 percent to $1,472.78 an ounce, and traded at $1,468.65 at 11:55 a.m. in Singapore. Gold is heading for an 8.1 percent drop in April after the metal plunged into a bear market this month.

Gold climbed 4.2 percent last week, the best showing since January 2012, as coin and jewelry demand expanded from the U.S. to China and India. The volume for the benchmark contract on the Shanghai Gold Exchange surged to a record last week, while premiums to secure supplies in India jumped to five times the level before the slump. Coin sales by the U.S. Mint are set for the highest since December 2009, while inventories monitored by the Comex tumbled last week to the lowest level since July 2008.

“Buoyed by strong continuing Asian demand, gold moved higher,” Howard Wen, an analyst at HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., wrote in a note. “The reduction in Comex inventories may be due in part to dislocations in demand in the physical market, as metal is moving from the west to the east to satisfy demand for physical buying in India and China.”

Sales and volumes at Chow Sang Sang Holdings International Ltd.’s 44 shops in Hong Kong more than doubled in the period from April 13 to 27 from a year ago, according to Dennis Lau, director of sales operations at the jewelry maker and retailer.

Record Drop

While prices have advanced 11 percent from a two-year low of $1,321.95 on April 16, they are still 5.9 percent below the April 11 close of $1,561.45 that preceded the rout. Assets held in ETPs shrank 166.27 metric tons so far April, heading for the biggest monthly drop on record in tonnage terms, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Gold for June delivery rose as much as 1.3 percent to $1,472.20 an ounce on the Comex and traded at $1,467.80. Hedge funds and other large speculators held 69,726 so-called short contracts on April 23, within 0.6 percent of the all-time high reached six weeks earlier, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. A short position is a bet on lower prices.

Silver gained 0.9 percent to $24.215 an ounce, 15 percent lower this month, the worst loss since December 2011. Platinum rose 0.7 percent to $1,487.15 an ounce, set for a third monthly decline. Palladium rose 0.2 percent to $682.40 an ounce, down 12 percent this month in the worst performance since September 2011.

To contact the reporter for this story: Glenys Sim at gsim4@bloomberg.net

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