China And India Demand Returns – SGE Volume Jumps to Record

by GoldCore
Today’s AM fix was USD 1,611.25, EUR 1,206.39 and GBP 1,041.53per ounce.
Friday’s AM fix was USD 1,629.25, EUR 1,221.42 and GBP 1,052.01 per ounce.
Silver is trading at $30.04/oz, €22.59/oz and £19.49/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,690.20/oz, palladium at $756.00/oz and rhodium at $1,225/oz.
Gold fell $36.70 or 1.63% on Friday and closed at $1,608.90/oz. Silver slid to a low of $29.68 and finished with a loss of 2.13%. In dollar terms, gold was down 3.58% for the week while silver was off 5.28%.
Gold fell less in pound, yen and most other fiat currencies again showing that gold’s latest bout of weakness is more a function of the dollar gaining in value rather than simply gold weakness.

Cross Currency Table – (Bloomberg)
Gold recovered from is greatest one day drop since December on Friday, rising $6.05/oz to $1,615.11 by late morning trading in Europe.
This is a 6 month low figure for the yellow metal but has led to bargain hunters again emerging to buy on the dip. Asian jewellery buyers and bargain hunters look to lend support at these lower levels.
The U.S. and Canadian stock markets are closed today for national holidays while China has reopened after the week long Lunar New Year holiday.
Today at 1430GMT European Central Bank President Mario Draghi testifies at the European Parliament.
A group of countries including Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States, known as P5 +1,  wants Iran to do more to prove that its nuclear program is for only non-military purposes and to permit wider U.N. inspections.
An anonymous source said on Friday that the P5+1 plan to offer to ease sanctions barring trade in gold and other precious metals with Iran in return for Iranian steps to close down the nation’s newly expanded Fordow uranium enrichment plant.
The officials said the offer will be presented to Iran at February 26 talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and they acknowledged that it represents a change to proposals from last year.

Gold Spot $/oz, 20FEB08-18FEB13 – (Bloomberg)
Investors trimmed their long positions on a rally in commodities by the highest level since November as speculators, often driven by momentum, cut their positions to the lowest level since December 2008, prior to the 23% and 27% gains seen in 2009 and 2010.
Hedge funds and other large speculators reduced net-long positions across 18 U.S. futures and options in the week ended February 12th by 15% to 757,060 contracts, the largest fall since November 13th, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show.
Gold prices have fallen 3.8% in dollar terms since December 31, the worst start to a year since 2001. Gold finished 2001, 2% higher in spite of a bad start to the year.
Shanghai Gold Exchange 
Gold volumes for the benchmark cash contract on the Shanghai Gold Exchange soared to a record today (see chart below), as the market re-opened after the New Year’s week long holiday and bargain hunters started buying.

The volume for bullion of 99.99% purity exceeded 22,000 kilograms (22 metric tons), according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Prices fell 2.8% to 327.25 yuan/gram ($1,630.29/oz) as of 5:04 p.m. Singapore time.
“Chinese investors returned to the market today after the holiday, and the slump in gold prices in the past week provided great incentive for buying as many Chinese are still holding a bullish outlook on gold,” Qu Mingyu, a trader at Bank of China Ltd., the 4th largest lender by assets, commented today.
The return of demand in Asia was not limited to China as demand in India was also seen overnight.
UBS analysts say UBS had above average demand from India after last week’s sell off.
“Appetite from India has been quite unimpressive of late, although buyers did respond to last Friday’s selloff,” said the UBS research note today which was picked up by Bloomberg.

Shanghai Gold Exchange, 26FEB09-19FEB13 – (Bloomberg)
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NEWS 
Big powers to offer easing gold sanctions at Iran nuclear talks – Yahoo News
Gold bounces off 6-month low; China reopens – Reuters
Gold Climbs From Six-Month Low as Price Decline Spurs Purchases – Bloomberg
Japanese Tsunami Victims Rebuild With Gift Of Gold – BBC
China’s gold consumption up 9.35% in 2012 – Xinhuanet
COMMENTARY
Gold’s Young Upleg – GoldSeek
Huge Buying Opportunity Setting Up In Gold – Mining.com
No End in Sight for Global “Currency Wars” – SirChartsAlot
“Proof that gold is not a bubble … “ – LarsSchall
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