Gold rush: A 1kg gold bar on display at the Korea Gold Exchange in Seoul. South Koreans are estimated to hold 800 tonnes in households and private vaults. – Reuters
SEOUL: South Koreans are on course to buy a record amount of gold in 2015, worried that a meltdown in China's stock markets will destabilise South Korean equities and keen to replenish a traditional store of value in an era of low interest rates.
In contrast to the weak demand in top gold buyers China and India, South Koreans are on target to buy 1 trillion won (US$860mil) in bullion for the first time this year, based on first-half sales through Korea Gold Exchange 3M Co Ltd, the country's largest gold merchant.
South Korea accounted for just 17 tonnes of gold demand in 2014, according to the World Gold Council, a far cry from the 974 and 811 tonnes in China and India respectively, so the revival in buying will do little for global bullion, but it could add to the depression on the domestic stock market.
Song Jong-gil, general director for sales at Korea Gold Exchange 3M, said that of the more than 500 billion won of gold sales the company made in the first half of 2015, more than 20% went to financial investors in the form of thin cards and bars ranging in weight from 1 gram to 1 kg.
“Low interest rates are the biggest reason. And gold is preferred to stocks and real estate thanks to high liquidity," Song said, adding sales picked up as bullion dropped below US$1,100 an ounce.
Volume hit 27.76 kg on the Korea Exchange bourse on July 20, the second highest daily volume since trading started there in March last year, as retail investors hunted bargains.
Global bullion hit US$1,077 an ounce last month, a 5-½-year low, and was at US$1,084 yesterday, depressed by the prospect of higher US interest rates and weak demand in major markets.
South Koreans have long seen gold as a store of value and a safe haven and are estimated to hold around 800 tonnes in households and private vaults. — Reuters
