Summary
- Shanghai Gold Benchmark PM increased by 3.6% while the LBMA Gold fixing AM climbed 4.5% in December. Even so, the Chinese local gold premium jumped during the month, supported by higher physical gold demand prior to Chinese New Year in January.
- The rising demand also pushed Au9999’s trading volume and gold withdrawals from the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) up further last month. And a lower gold price volatility dragged Au(T+D)’s trading volume down on a m-o-m basis.
- China’s gold imports totalled 46t in November, 11t higher than October.
- Profit taking resulted in a 1.7t loss in holdings of Chinese gold ETFs in December, leaving the total amount at 43.64t, 2.3t higher on a y-o-y basis.
- The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) left its gold reserve unchanged at 1,948t in December.