US investors start using BullionVault
at 17-month record pace in March...
GOLD BULLION demand saw the US come in, Eurozone ease back in March.
Overall, that took the total quantity of
gold bullion owned by our customers to a new record high, and also buoyed our
Gold Investor Index of private Western sentiment towards the metal.
Using data only from BullionVault, the world's largest
physical bullion market online, the Gold Investor Index counts the number of
people growing their gold holdings against those cutting, rather than
measuring demand by weight.
The index is rebalanced so that a reading
of 50.0 would signal a perfect match. It peaked at 71.7 in September 2011,
and hit near-five year lows of 50.5 this New Year.
And slipping from February's jump to 54.5
the index held last month at 53.1 – again beating its previous 12-month
average, and for only the fourth time since the start of 2013.
FX volatility may look to be leading
investor sentiment on precious metals right now. But a split between gold and
silver sentiment amongst private investors across the developed West also
points to continued anxiety about stock and bond markets, especially in the
US.
In contrast to gold bullion, sentiment on
silver fell sharply last month, down from 54.8 in February to just 50.3 in
March – the fourth fastest drop of the last three years, and only the eighth
time the Silver Investor Index has fallen beneath the Gold Investor Index
since March 2012.
This suggests investors switched to
focusing more on financial insurance, something backed by March's changes in client holdings by weight.
The quantity of silver owned by
BullionVault users ended last month unchanged at the all-time record
set in February. But our customers continued adding gold in aggregate,
growing their gold bullion property to a new all-time record of 33.2 tonnes.
Yes, complacency in the Eurozone over
high equity valuations and a possible Grexit has seen the region's gold
demand ease back. But trailing the jump in US sentiment, gold sentiment
amongst investors in the UK also held firm last month in response to the
rising volatility in Gilts, the Pound and the FTSE ahead of the General
Election in May.
Although the average daily price of both precious metals
fell against the Pound in March, silver in fact reversed all of February's
4.5% drop by month-end, and gold rose almost 2% to close the month back above
£800 per ounce.
Priced in the Dollar, gold's daily
average meantime fell within $2 per ounce of November's 4-year low. US
customers took advantage of that Dollar strength, with more than three times
as many starting or adding to their gold holdings as reduced them.
Euro gold prices, in contrast, rose for
the fourth month running to hit the highest average in almost two years at
€1089 per ounce. Given that rebound, plus increased confidence in Euro stock
markets following the start of the European Central Bank's QE bond buying,
the number of gold sellers across the 19-nation currency union almost
balanced the number of Euro gold buyers.
The number of new US users funding their
BullionVault account for the first time meanwhile rose 52% from February in
March, reaching the highest level since October 2013. The number of
first-time users living in the 19-nation Eurozone fell 30% in contrast from
February's number, and dropped 55% from January's 21-month record.
Still, the first calendar quarter of 2015
as a whole recorded the largest number of new Eurozone customers since Q2
2013, back when a 25% crash in world gold prices unleashed heavy demand from
new investors.
Bottom line? Local news, pricing and
investing anxieties may ebb and flow. But gold bullion continues
to grow its appeal.
