The Gold Traders Association this morning announced buying prices at 19,829.28 baht per baht-weight for gold ornaments and 20,200 baht per baht-weight for gold bar.
Selling prices were set at 20,800 baht per baht-weight for gold ornaments, and 20,300 baht per baht-weight for gold bar.
This means gold prices were stable from Friday’s close.
For the global market, gold explorers set for 2017's best week as Moribund Metal Stirs
According to a report by Bloomberg, a gauge of gold producers including Newmont Mining Corp and Barrick Gold Corp headed for the biggest weekly gain this year as the metal rebounded on the outlook for US interest rates.
The BI Global Senior Gold Valuation Peer Group of 15 companies is up 6.5% this week, the most since the end of December. Gains for the past five days were led by Johannesburg-based Gold Fields Ltd, which surged 15% this week, the most since February 2016.
Bullion futures have surged after the Federal Reserve signaled it will stick to its gradual pace on rate increases, easing concerns that policy makers would move at a faster clip amid signs of a strengthening economy. Gold, which rallied through the first two months of the year, had foundered in March as the prospect of higher borrowing costs curbed the appeal of non-interest-bearing assets.
“The gold miner’s rally has much more room to go and this will be primarily due to the reason because there is still more upside to gold,” Naeem Aslam, the chief market analyst at ThinkMarkets UK Ltd, said in an email. “The Fed is not going to hawkish anytime soon.”
Gold futures for April delivery rose 0.3% to settle at US$1,230.20 an ounce at 1.49pm on the Comex in New York. The metal is up 2.4% this week, the biggest gain since Feb 3.
Demand for the metal as a haven asset is also getting help from the Fed’s economic forecast, which showed policy makers don’t foresee a rapid pickup in US growth.
The US central bankers left unchanged their forecast for 2017 GDP growth at 2.1%. The median estimate showed the economy expanding 2.1% in 2018 and 1.9% in 2019, compared to 2% and 1.9% in the December forecast.
“It is almost as if the gold market is relieved that the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday evening, meaning that the whole business can be forgotten again for a while,” analysts at Commerzbank AG including Daniel Briesemann said in a note Friday.
