Gold sales in Abu Dhabi surge 300%

by Summer Said on Monday, 01 September 2008

Gold jewellery sales in Abu Dhabi soared 300 percent in volume and almost 250 percent in value in August from a year earlier after the metal dropped to nine-month lows, the emirate's industry group said on Monday.

"It was the best month the market has seen in almost 30 years and it compensated for any drops we have seen earlier this year," Abu Dhabi Gold and Jewellery Group Chairman Tushar Patni told Reuters.

"We had never expected that if gold fell below $800 an ounce we would see a 300 percent increase in volume and 250 percent in value, especially as many buyers are abroad on holiday."
The Gulf Arab emirate's gold demand was steady in July, as many buyers, mainly from the Indian subcontinent, headed home for the summer holidays.

Gold dropped to a nine-month low of about $773 an ounce in mid-August before bouncing back, but it still has been trading far below its all-time high of $1,030.80 an ounce, hit in March.

The precious metal was trading around $827 an ounce in Europe on Monday.

"Many people took advantage of lower gold prices to buy all the jewellery they wanted for Ramadan and the Eid or because they want to keep it until prices rise again to make profit," Patni said.

The lunar month of Ramadan, which this year coincides with September, is a time when devout Muslims refrain from all food and drink during daylight hours. It ends with the Eid, or feast, during which many couples marry.

"Many Indian buyers followed the same logic and bought gold for Diwali in August," Patni said.

Hindu weddings normally are held between September and November, and Diwali, the important Hindu festival of lights, is in October.

Tax-free jewellery shopping in the United Arab Emirates - a seven-member federation that includes Abu Dhabi and Dubai, known as the "City of Gold" - lures many Gulf and Western tourists.

Demand in the Gulf Arab country fell 10.7 percent to 26.6 tonnes in the second quarter of 2008, the industry-funded World Gold Council said last month. (Reuters)

Real World Ways to Invest in Gold

• Gold bullion. - Refiners produce gold bars from one gram to 400 ozs.
• Gold coins. - The most popular are one oz coins such as the American Eagle, Canadian Maple Leaf, the South African Krugerrand, and the Austrian Vienna Philharmonic. They are easy to keep and transport and closely match the price of gold with a small premium.
• Numismatic coins. - Older coins which fit the description of collectibles have a premium to the value of gold included in the coin. The holder is dependent upon an accurate and fair appraisal.
• Gold certificates. - A certificate which represents ownership of gold bullion held by a financial institution for convenient and safe storage. There is a fee for storage and insurance.
• Gold futures and options. - A futures contract traded on one of the futures exchanges, such as the COMEX in New York. This method is generally leveraged and options provide price movement much more than that of gold itself. It can be used to sell short and can be used to benefit from a drop in the price of gold.
• Gold Mining stocks. - Stock ownership of a company traded on one of the exchanges. The price movement is dependent not only upon the price of gold, but also upon the future of the corporation and management. It's price movement is almost always more than the movement of gold itself. Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) is one way to invest in stocks.
• Jewelry. - Representing the largest consumption of gold each year, jewelry is a major method of savings in developing economies.
• Exchange Traded Funds (ETF)- Perhaps the safest method of buying and owning gold by buying shares in a fund based solely on the existing market price of gold. No leverage or storage problems. GLD, GDX, and SLV.
• Gold Mutual funds. - A relatively safe method of buying and owning gold stocks allows the owner to diversify among many stocks and allows the investing decisions to be made by a professional. Investment methods vary among funds and provide many different styles of portfolio management for an investor to choose from. Prices move faster and further in both directions than the price of gold.
  

Reasons to say YES to Gold

• The dollar is weak and getting weaker due to national economic policies which don't appear to have an end.
• Gold price appreciation makes up for lost interest, especially in a bull market.
• The last four years are the beginning of a major bull move similar to the 70's when gold moved from $38 to over $800.
• Central banks in several countries have stated their intent to increase their gold holdings instead of selling.
• All gold funds are in a long term uptrend with bullion, most recently setting new all-time highs.
• The trend of commodity prices to increase is relative to gold price increases.
• Worldwide gold production is not matching consumption. The price will go up with demand.
• Most gold consumption is done in India and China and their demand is increasing with their increase in national wealth.
• Several gold funds reached all-time highs in 2007 and are still trending upward.
• The short position held by hedged gold funds is being methodically reduced.
• U.S. government economic policies over the past decade have systematically projected the U.S. economy down a road with uncontrollable federal spending and an uncontrollably increasing trade deficits. Both will cause the dollar to lose in international value and will increase the price of alternative investments, such as gold.
• With the recent devaluation of many international currencies, the U.S. dollar was the international safe haven of last resort. We are seeing signs of this ending due to many financial factors, the most important one being a falling dollar.
• There are over One Trillion dollars ($1,500,000,000,000) of U.S. debt owned by foreigners which could be repatriated under certain conditions. This could cause a major decline in the value of the dollar and a soaring gold price.
• If you believe in 'buy low, sell high', gold is still low, but climbing.

Dubai Gold & Jewellery Group's DSS campaign achieves record sales

UAE. Dubai Gold & Jewellery Group (DGJG) which ran the 'Glittering Surprises' campaign offering Dubai Summer Surprises (DSS) shoppers fabulous chances to win gold and jewellery vouchers, announced record sales driven by strong demand and relatively lower prices of gold.

"Dubai is still the best place to buy high quality and variety of jewellery at the world's best prices. DSS with its multiple chances to win gold and jewellery offers an incentive to shop during summer which is also the time most expatriates purchase gifts to take home for their holidays. Because of its intrinsic value and traditional affiliations gold is one of the most sought after gifts, especially among Asians and Arabs," said Tawhid Abdullah, Managing Director, Dubai Gold & Jewellery Group.

"This year's campaign was well received and total sales recorded stood close to AED500 million (US$136.24 million) at the end of the campaign. With gold prices becoming more attractive, we look forward to another successful quarter,' he added.

65 lucky winners received AED10,000 worth of gold and jewellery vouchers while nine were blessed with weekly bumper prizes of Dhs50,000 each. The youngest winner of the campaign is one year old baby.,

"UAE residents, including expatriates and nationals, dominated 'Glittering Surprises', winning 88% of the prizes. The rest of the winners were tourists. All of them were excited at winning, with most looking forward to next year's campaign," said Swapna Nair, General Manager of Dubai Gold & Jewellery Group.

"We were also very pleased with the fact that many nationalities won during the campaign - there were winners from more than 13 countries including UAE, UK, USA, Russia, Greece, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines, Egypt, Iran and Iraq," added Swapna.

This year is Dubai Gold & Jewellery Group's sixth year of association with Dubai Summer Surprises.

Source: BI-ME , Author: BI-ME staff

Gold futures Tuesday closed higher for the first time in three sessions as rising oil prices increased demand for gold as an

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures Tuesday closed higher for the first time in three sessions as rising oil prices increased demand for gold as an investment haven against inflation. Gold for December delivery rose $2.4, or 0.3%, to $828.10 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. October crude futures soared as much as 2% on concerns that Hurricane Gustav may damage oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico

Source:marketwatch.com

Gold rises first day in three as crude rallies

By Moming Zhou

Last update: 1:46 p.m. EDT Aug. 26, 2008

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures Tuesday closed higher for the first time in three sessions as rising oil prices increased demand for gold as an investment haven against inflation. Gold for December delivery rose $2.4, or 0.3%, to $828.10 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. October crude futures soared as much as 2% on concerns that Hurricane Gustav may damage oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico

source: marketwatch.com

Gold rises first day in three as crude rallies

By Moming Zhou

Last update: 1:46 p.m. EDT Aug. 26, 2008

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures Tuesday closed higher for the first time in three sessions as rising oil prices increased demand for gold as an investment haven against inflation. Gold for December delivery rose $2.4, or 0.3%, to $828.10 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. October crude futures soared as much as 2% on concerns that Hurricane Gustav may damage oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico

source: marketwatch.com

Gold futures dip after last week's rally

Dollar, oil, Russia eyed as traders weigh physical, investment gold demand

By Myra P. Saefong & Moming Zhou, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures closed lower Monday, with traders taking profit from last week's 5% rally and finding little indication for direction from the U.S. dollar and oil.

Gold futures for December delivery fell $7.80, or 0.9%, to close at $825.70 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures fell earlier to an intraday low of $820.50. Gold ended last week's trading up 5.2%.

"Gold remains hesitant and is not getting clear direction from the dollar which is essentially flat," said Mark O'Byrne, executive director at Gold and Silver Investments Ltd.

"Higher oil prices and weakness in equity markets should result in gold remaining well bid as this market session progresses, but given the degree of macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty anything can happen in these markets in the short term," he said in emailed comments.

Gold's slip was limited by a mixed U.S. dollar, with the greenback trading almost flat against the British pound. The pound bought $1.8522 recently. The dollar gained modestly against the euro, with the European currency buying $1.4755.

Resales of U.S. single-family homes and condominiums rose in July but inventories also increased, reaching record levels, data showed Monday. See full story.

The dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, was at 76.80, almost unchanged from Friday. See Currencies.

Dollar-denominated gold prices tend to move in the opposite direction of the greenback.

Physical demand

Julian Phillips, an analyst at GoldForecaster.com, said he believes the dollar is "having less and less effect at the moment as we run out of time before the high season in gold begins in the last quarter."

Recent physical demand for gold remains very robust in the U.S., India, the Middle East and Asia, O'Byrne said. The U.S. Mint recently announced the suspension of sales of some of its gold coins. See related story.

While some analysts said the issue is about a shortage of blanks to create the coins, not a shortage of the raw material, O'Byrne said an unprecedented level of demand and a lack of supply also played an important role.

"The bottom line is that this lack of supply and huge demand will result in materially higher prices in the coming weeks," he said.

O'Byrne also pointed out that the Commitment of Traders monthly report shows an "unprecedented and phenomenal level of shorting in recent weeks -- and this shorting was heavily concentrated amongst just a handful of players."

For now, "the market place is presently divided into two parts, the jewelers who have a little time to buy before they need to together with investment demand which waits for the price to be ready to rise, before they go in," said Phillips in emailed comments.

"The other side is the short term traders on Comex, who take opportunities on both the up and down side of the market," he said. "Last week saw them sell until they hit support below $800, then vigorous demand take the gold price back up over $800."

"Right now they are deciding whether to knock the price down again or have they hit too large a support," he said. "This week will decide that."

Phillips doesn't believe that tension between Russia and the U.S. is affecting gold prices.

"As to international news affecting the gold price, I personally only see news relevant to the monetary system and directly to gold buying or selling as being of importance," he said. "Georgia and such troubles, like Iraq, don't make people buy gold."

"It is becoming clearer that the problems of the monetary system where they affect the future value of the dollar are worsening, but are also affecting other currencies," Phillips said.

In other commodities trading, crude-oil futures finished higher as a new tropical storm formed in the Atlantic.

Nymex crude for October delivery closed 52 cents higher at $115.11 a barrel on the Nymex.

On the stock market, U.S. shares dropped on worries about the financial sector.

Other metals

Also on the Nymex, September silver fell 0.8% to c;pse at $13.37 an ounce, and October platinum shed 0.4% to end at $1,435 an ounce. September palladium fell to $286 an ounce, down $3. September copper added 0.3% to end at $3.4815 a pound.

Tracking the commodities sector as a whole Friday, the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index, a measure of major commodity futures, rose 0.1% to 395.13.

On the equities side, the Amex Gold Bugs Index lost 0.5% to close at 341.02 points.

The SPDR Gold Trust fell 0.1% to close at $80.93 and the Market
Vectors-Gold Miners ETF declined by 1.2% to end at $37.05, but the iShares Silver Trust ETF added 0.5% to close at $13.33.

Myra P. Saefong is MarketWatch's assistant markets editor, based in San Francisco.
Moming Zhou is a MarketWatch reporter, based in San Francisco.
source:marketwatch.com

Why Gold?

One of the way to secure your financial investment is to buy gold or other precious metals. Why? because the gold price tend to follow inflation rate. Say, you save your money in a bank and you have an interest of 5% of your saving per year, compare with your country inflation rate. some countries has the inflation rate more than 10% per year which is make your money looks more in number but less in value. The opinion below I quote from the assessment of Oxford Club collaborator and investment guru Chris Weber Mr. Weber's article comes to us courtesy of Dr. Steve Sjuggerud's Daily Wealth which share his opinion that:


"The price of gold rose during the 1970s. In fact, it soared. From $35 in January 1970 to a high of $850 in January 1980: that was a rise of 2,329%. And might I remind you that for most other investment classes, like stocks and bonds, the decade of the '70s was dismal. But what is often overlooked – except by those who actually lived through that era and were holders of gold – is that there was a long period in the middle of the decade when gold either went nowhere or lost up to 50% of its value.

No price goes up – or down – forever. And even the mightiest bull market makes time to correct. It has often been observed that a price can retrace its prior great move by 50%. It tests that 50% level, and how it passes the test can determine what the next leg looks like. Well, this is what happened to gold starting with its $200 peak in December 1974. Over the next 19 months, the price worked its way lower. Indeed, in August 1976, gold touched the $100 level – meaning it had lost 50% of its prior bull market move.

Of course, at the time, no one was certain this would be the absolute low – that no future price would ever get so low. And – crucially – it wasn't until well into 1978 that gold surpassed its previous record high of $200. So think about that. Someone who jumped on the gold bandwagon at the end of 1974 had to wait over three years to stop losing money. And that's assuming they waited. I'm sure many threw in the towel long before those three years passed. But those who held on to their positions were greatly rewarded.

From the $100 low in August 1976, gold soared over the next 3½ years to a high of $850 in January 1980. Those few lucky enough to time their purchases at the low saw 750% returns. But those who identified the bull market early and were able to keep their heads about them in the correction were able to reap as much as 2,300% over the life of the bull. (That's not using leverage, either.) Of course, today it is possible gold will turn up from here and start to soar again, soon testing its old $1,030 high. But we have to keep open the possibility that the correction will last much longer and take gold even lower than it is now.

How far could it fall? Well, there's no way to be sure, of course. But there are a couple of ways that are possible. A fall similar to the 50% decline we saw from end-'74 to summer '76 would mean a fall in half from $1,030... or $515 gold as the low. However, there is a more optimistic way to look at things. If gold retraced 50% of the giant move it made from the low of $253 to the high of $1,030, this would mean giving back half of the $777 difference between those two extremes. Half of this is $388.50, and subtracting this amount from the $1,030 high gives us a much better low of $641.50. (One important point: I'm not predicting gold will touch either $641 or $515. I'm just saying it is possible, given history and a study of the markets.)

My advice remains as it has been. Have enough cash to ride through any unexpected correction in any of your other assets. But by all means, own some of the metals area. Don't try to time the purchases; if you get it exactly right, it'll be by accident alone."

Buying gold not because you want to use it as the speculation tools where when the price is low you buy gold and when the price is high you sell it. NO. Use it to secure your finance and an investment tool which means no matter the price is low or high buy gold for your finance protection.