IMF Sold 200 Metric Tons of Gold to India
November 3rd, 2009Via: Bloomberg:
The International Monetary Fund sold 200 metric tons of gold to the Reserve Bank of India for about $6.7 billion, its first sale of the precious metal in nine years.
The transaction, which involved daily sales from Oct. 19-30 at market prices, is in the process of being settled, the IMF said in a statement yesterday. The average price in the sales to India was about $1,045 an ounce, an IMF official said on a conference call with reporters. Gold for immediate delivery rose in Asia, approaching a record $1,070.80 an ounce.
“The most important thing is that people want gold even at these prices,” said Ghee Peh, head of mining research, with UBS AG in Hong Kong. “There’s good support for prices for now” from the IMF’s disposal of bullion, he said.
The sale accounts for almost half the 403.3 tons that the Washington-based lender in September agreed to sell as part of a plan to shore up its finances and lend at reduced rates to low- income countries. Asian nations, which have amassed stockpiles of foreign currency reserves since the 1998 financial crisis, have shown increased interest in diversifying out of U.S. assets as the dollar loses value against other currencies.
Gold for immediate delivery rose 0.5 percent to $1,064.90 an ounce at 9:42 a.m. in Singapore. December-delivery gold jumped 1.1 percent to $1,065.40 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex division, the highest price for a most-active contract since Oct. 23 and approaching the Oct. 14 record of $1,072 an ounce.
Research Credit: S
