Today’s AM fix was USD 1,311.00, EUR 942.08
and GBP 772.54 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,308.50, EUR 939.61 and GBP 772.20 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,308.50, EUR 939.61 and GBP 772.20 per ounce.
Gold fell $2.70 or 0.21% yesterday to
$1,307.80/oz. Silver slipped $0.05 or 0.25% to $19.56/oz.
Gold is trading in a very tight trading range
above $1,310/oz, with geopolitical risk from Ukraine driving the safe
haven demand.
Gold Breaks Through 200 and 50 Moving Averages, 5 Year Chart – (Reuters)
Technically, the
gold price would be expected to break out at some point but
the direction of the breakout is unclear. A breakout to the upside
would have to clear $1,331/oz and then trade above $1,392/oz, towards
the psychologically important $1,400/oz level.
Dave Toth, the director of technical research
at futures brokerage RJ O’Brien and Associates in Chicago, has
referred to this price pattern as “ranges within ranges” since
the current price is in the mid-range of the price range over the
last month and this latest month price range is itself in the middle
of the price range over the last year.
Bangladesh
Being Used As Transit Point for Gold Smuggling into IndiaThe
Financial Express of
Dhaka, Bangladesh, today reports on a huge increase in customs
seizures of smuggled gold into Bangladesh over the last year.
Last March, 107kg of gold was seized by
officials at the international airport in Chittagong. Then more
recently, 106kg was impounded at the international airport of the
capital city Dhaka. The biggest seizure, however, was in July last
year, at the same airport in Dhaka when 124kg of smuggled gold was
discovered.
The National Board of Revenue have compiled
statistics showing that while only 25kg of smuggled gold was seized
in 2012 in Bangladesh, this rose to 520 kgs last year. Similar
figures for the first three months of this year hit 220kg just from
these two international airports.
Most legal gold arriving into Bangladesh comes
from the Middle East, Singapore or Malaysia, and also via remittances
from Bangladeshi immigrants. Since the import tax on gold into
Bangladesh is very low, officials believe that the huge rise in
smuggling is mainly is because Bangladesh is being used as a transit
point for gold smuggling into neighbouring India where the import tax
is currently running at more than 11%, and where there is an
insatiable unfulfilled demand for gold.
Indeed, those arrested for gold smuggling into
Dhaka and Chittagong airports have confirmed that the final
destination is India and officials say that multiple international
criminal groups are involved. Once the gold comes into Bangladesh it
is transported back into India in smaller amounts via the numerous
border crossings.
Bangladeshi law enforcement officials say that
the smuggling operations are meticulously planned and they suspect
that some corrupt staff from the Civil Aviation Authority and customs
agencies may be involved, since otherwise the smuggling operations
would be very difficult to execute. This is why they are viewing the
smuggling as a potential national security issue.
This elaborate network of gold smuggling
operations into Bangladesh and India shows yet again that in the
Middle East, South Asia and East Asia, gold is not a ‘barbarous
relic’, and is not ‘tradition’, it is in fact something much
more fundamental, money.
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