Gold, silver rally to 10% gains this year

New Delhi, April 20 Safe haven assets, especially gold and silver have seen a fantastic rally since the start of this year, positing 10 per cent year to date (YTD) gains, Motilal Oswal Financial Services said in a report.

It probably is the year of safe havens, as along with global growth slowdown, geo-political uncertainties, there are also expectations regarding slower interest rate hikes which really is a positive scenario for gold prices, the report said.

Demand and supply factors historically have not directly made a big impact on gold prices, and especially in a scenario where there are more overpowering uncertainties present in market.

Gold prices have posted a sharp rally over the last couple of months, hence some ease off could be warranted.

Gold's demand seldom disappoints the market, however things are little different on domestic front this time around due to some slowdown in the physical market, primarily amidst recent changes in customs duty to 15 per cent (including cess) for gold last year and for silver this year.

India in 2021 imported 1,050 tonnes gold, in 2022 it imported 705 tonnes of gold, on other hand, silver import number surprised everyone in 2022, which were to the tune of 9,500 tonnes.

Amidst higher prices, there is some resilience in the physical market with respect to gold buying. On the domestic front, gold ETF has witnessed good traction with the Total AUM of major fund houses going above Rs 17,000 crore.

Also giving a boost to the overall demand is the Central Bank gold buying spree which is rising with a consistent pace, since the last 10 years, major central banker have been net buyers.

According to WGC, current scale of central bank buying is massive an annualised rate of 1,724 tonnes vs an average of 512 tonnes over the past decade, the report said.

The triggers which are supporting the market are geo-political tensions in Russia/Ukraine, China/Taiwan.

Russian-Ukraine concerns set a positive tone for safe haven assets, and to top up, Finland was granted admission in NATO, which doubled their borders and increased threat for Russia increasing uncertainties.

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