FN:WSJ: India's Demand for Gold Compensates for Lack of Chinese Demand
While China's thirst for gold has slackened this year, as the nation's investors are more interested in its soaring stock market, strong demand from India has risen, helping to buoy the precious metal.
Gold is little changed this year, trading at $1,172.30 an ounce Wednesday, down from $1,184.10 Dec. 31.
China is the world's No. 1 gold buyer, and India is No. 2. Normally their buying patterns run in synch, as they purchase the metal after its price drops and sell it after rallies, The Wall Street Journal explains.
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But in China, investors are focusing on the stock explosion that has seen the Shanghai Composite index up 41.5 percent so far this year.
"It is having a big impact on jewelry demand," Victor Thianpiriya, a precious-metals analyst with ANZ Bank, told The Journal. China’s gold imports may plunge as much as 20 percent this year, he said.
But gold buying is strong in India, as the government has eased import restrictions.
Meanwhile, you can count Avi Gilburt, author of ElliottWaveTrader.net, as a raging gold bull. He thinks it can replicate the eight-fold jump it enjoyed between 2000, when it traded at $250 an ounce, and 2011, when it touched a record high of $1,9
