Market Commentary

Investors often use the direction of the US dollar as a bellwether for gold’s performance. However, over recent years, short-term movements in gold have been more heavily influenced by US interest rates and expectations of policy normalisation.

The strong gold price performance was a positive for investors and producers, and was symptomatic of a more profound shift in sentiment: a growing recognition of gold’s role as a wealth preservation and risk mitigation tool. This goes to the heart of our strategy to make gold a mainstream asset.

On February 5th, stock markets suffered one of their more precipitous falls in recent years. The gold price rose but, as stocks partly retraced their losses, gold trended lower.

This report covers key stages in the hallmarking journey in order to ascertain what works best in other jurisdictions and how India can maximise the benefits of mandatory hallmarking. 

With an annual demand of approximately 800-900 tonnes, the size of the Indian gold market is second only to that of China. Despite its significant size and important global position, the Indian gold market is unable to realise its potential due to multiple challenges.

Sovereign wealth funds, like many other investors, are under pressure to generate returns in a low-yield, low growth environment. Many are expanding into alternative assets to seek growth and income opportunities. Despite this, few sovereign wealth funds have invested in gold due to ongoing misconceptions about gold’s performance, financial behaviour, and liquidity.