Asia Gold: India gold demand lags as prices rise, wedding buying cools
May 30 (Reuters) - Physical gold demand in India was subdued this week, as an uptick in domestic prices and a winding up of wedding season kept buyers at bay, while premiums slipped in top consumer China.
This week, Indian dealers were offering a discount of up to $31 an ounce over official domestic prices, inclusive of 6% import and 3% sales levies, down from last week's discount of up to $49.
"The wedding season is wrapping up and the monsoon has kicked in, so jewellers are expecting a seasonal dip in demand. That's why they're holding off on making new purchases," said a Mumbai-based bullion dealer with a private bank.
Domestic gold prices were trading around 94,900 rupees per 10 grams on Friday after hitting a one-month low of 90,890 rupees earlier this month.
In China, bullion changed hands at par to a $15 premium an ounce over the global benchmark spot price, compared with premiums of $16-$30 last week.
"Shanghai Gold Exchange drawdowns have eased to the lows of this year while imports in the last few weeks have been exceptionally high, suggesting the Chinese domestic market may be overstocked just now," said Ross Norman, an independent analyst.
China's total gold imports via Hong Kong nearly tripled month on month in April, hitting their highest level in more than a year, Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department data showed on Monday.
"Gold bullish bets remain predominant on the SHFE despite lower trading volume," said Hugo Pascal, a precious metals trader at InProved.
In Hong Kong, gold was sold at a premium of $0.30 to $1.30, while in Singapore gold traded between at-par prices and a $2.50 premium.
In Japan, bullion was sold at par to a premium of $0.50.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Apple tells Met to embrace ‘traditional policing' in clash over phone thefts
Apple has told the Metropolitan Police to focus on 'traditional policing' to tackle a surge in mobile phone thefts. Gary Davis, a senior executive at the iPhone-maker, said police were not fully investigating some phone thefts in Britain by seeking information about the stolen devices from Apple. In a hearing before MPs on the science, innovation and technology committee, Mr Davis was asked whether Apple should be doing more to build a technical solution to phone thefts. He replied: 'I would want to make sure that as part of all of that the Met Police continues to do traditional policing, which means sending requests to us for stolen devices and Apple responding to those requests for stolen devices. We are not seeing that.' It came after senior police officials urged tech companies to consider new technical ways of preventing theft. The Met wants mobile phone makers to use a unique number linked to a phone's modem chip – which connects to mobile networks – to identify phones that are reported stolen and block them. Police believe up to three quarters of stolen phones are moved abroad, with 28pc ending up in China or Hong Kong and many in Algeria. The Met recorded more than 80,000 phone thefts in 2024, up by a quarter on 2023 levels. Once overseas, these phones become more difficult to track. While UK networks can implement some blocking on the 'IMEI' chip numbers of stolen phones, this is more patchy internationally. Speaking on Tuesday, Darren Scates, the Met's chief digital officer, said one proposal that was being 'considered by Apple and Google' was to 'stop a smart phone serial number being allowed to connect to their services if it is reported as lost or stolen'. The police say this would make the device worthless. Mr Scates added that technology companies had provided methods to 'lock the device' remotely, but some criminals had means of cracking this. Technology chiefs have raised concerns over the risks of allowing more remote locking tools. Mr Davis said the industry was wary about whether such a system could become a 'vector for fraud', with people potentially being able to make false claims that phones have been stolen, leading to devices being automatically blocked. The hearing comes amid growing scrutiny over spiralling crime rates across the UK. The Met has warned that there are growing links between knife crime, child exploitation gangs, drugs and mobile phone theft, with some gangs 'pivoting' from selling illegal drugs to stealing handsets. Speaking to executives from Apple, Google and Samsung, Kit Malthouse, the senior Conservative MP, suggested that technology companies have been 'dragging their feet' on coming up with a technical solution. However, Mr Davis said attention also needed to be focussed on the police response to mobile phone theft, saying: 'We need the requests to come to us. We need to give them the responses. 'They need to use the information we provide to them in order to identify where the phones are being stolen, and I assume therefore target resources. I am not just seeing those resources coming through to us.' Apple said it had introduced a new Stolen Device Protection feature, which requires a Face ID check to access certain phone features, rather than just a code. It has also added technology that can remotely prevent stolen phone parts being stripped and re-used. Google, meanwhile, has added an artificial intelligence feature to its Android software that can detect if a phone has been snatched.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
South Korea's conservative presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo concedes defeat
SEOUL, June 4 (Reuters) - South Korea's conservative presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo conceded defeat early on Wednesday in the June 3 snap election. Kim told a press conference that he had congratulated his opponent, liberal candidate Lee Jae-myung, on his election victory.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Lee Jae-myung: from child labourer to leader of deeply scarred South Korea
Lee Jae-myung will need to draw on his considerable survival instincts as he attempts to steer South Korea out of the political morass of the past six months. The liberal candidate, who on Tuesday became the country's president at the third attempt after defeating his conservative rival, Kim Moon-soo, has promised to govern for all South Koreans – and for good reason. After a swift transfer of power that will take him to the presidential Blue House on Wednesday, Lee will inherit a deeply scarred country. He faces the task of restoring stability after his predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol's disastrous attempt to impose martial law in December, in what he said was an attempt to eliminate 'anti-state forces'. And Lee will be expected to move quickly to address domestic issues that have been largely sidelined while South Korea confronted its biggest political crisis in decades: income inequality, the soaring cost of living and – a hardy perennial for South Korean leaders – how to resurrect dialogue with an increasingly erratic North Korea. Lee, 61, a former factory worker who became a human rights lawyer before entering politics, is no stranger to adversity – or controversy. He campaigned behind protective screens, wearing a bulletproof vest and surrounded by armed guards – an unprecedented precaution in democratic South Korea prompted by reported threats to his life and, in January last year, a knife attack in which he sustained neck injuries that required emergency surgery. The threats to Lee are not only physical. He begins his single five-year term creaking beneath the weight of continuing legal cases that could plunge his presidency into crisis before it has barely begun. Lee faces several charges – which he has denied – the most serious that he made false statement during a televised debate during his last presidential campaign, in 2022. He brings experience of the rough and tumble of South Korean politics, having served as the former leader of the main opposition Democratic party, as well as stints as a governor and mayor. South Korean media have described Lee as stubborn and determined, qualities they trace to his early years as one of seven children growing up in a poor family in Andong, North Gyeongsang province. His education was hardly an ideal preparation for a career in law and politics. He frequently skipped classes at primary school – a 5km walk from home – and quit school as a teenager to work in factories to help his mother and sister, both toilet cleaners, pay the bills after they moved to Seongnam, near Seoul. At 13 he was left with a permanent disability after his wrist was crushed by an industrial press. The injury meant he was later exempted from mandatory military service. Lee eventually passed his school exams before studying law on a scholarship, passing the bar exam in 1986 before becoming a human rights lawyer and activist. His transition to politics mirrored the struggling start to his education: he failed to get elected as mayor of Seongnam at his first attempt in 2006, succeeding four years later. Having lost his party's nomination for president to Moon Jae-in in 2017, Lee was defeated in the 2022 election by Yoon by the slimmest margin – less than one percentage point – in South Korea's history, after an acrimonious campaign that offered a foretaste of the division that would characterise Yoon's time in office. Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said Lee had benefited from public anger directed towards Yoon and his People Power party [PPP]. 'Lee's victory is not thanks to any particular policy proposals, but rather a result of Yoon's spectacular collapse,' Easley said. As polling day approached, Lee appeared to agree that Yoon was his greatest electoral asset. In a speech on Monday, he promised to revitalise the economy, reduce inequality and heal a divided country, cautioning that a vote for his PPP opponent, Kim, could reopen the door to Yoon's 'rebellion forces'. He said: 'If they somehow win, that will mean … the destruction of democracy, the deprival of people's human rights, the normalisation of martial law and our country's downfall into a backward, third-world nation.' Lee was given temporary relief from his legal headaches after courts approved his request to postpone further hearings until after Tuesday's election. But any guilty verdict now that he is president would spark a debate over constitutional provisions that shield South Korean leaders from criminal prosecution, except against allegations of insurrection or treason. Observers wonder if presidential immunity would halt the prosecutions, or simply prevent any new charges from being brought. Lee called Tuesday's election 'judgment day' for South Korea. He was referring to the opportunity it gave voters to move on from the Yoon era – but his own moment of reckoning may not be far behind.
