Japan’s biggest bullion retailer Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K said sales to local investors could top purchases this year since 2004 as lower prices and the weakness of yen outgrowth buying interest.
Kate Harada, general manager of the precious metals department at Tanaka Kikinzoku, a unit of Tanaka Holdings Co. said “Japanese individuals are thinking of gold as an asset for their investment portfolio in addition to insurance for the future,” added “A growing number want to use gold partly to hedge against their yen-based assets for instance stocks and properties.”
The fall in a bear market in April encouraged demand for coins and jewelry all over the world and the year’s second half frequently sees improvements in physical demand for religious festivals and wedding seasons in Asia, as well as India and China, the biggest consumers. Gold in London dropped 23% last quarter, reaching a 34-month low of $1,180.50 an ounce on June 28, subsequently, some investors lost faith in gold as a store of value and as the Federal Reserve stated that it could taper stimulus.
Harada, who oversees Tanaka’s sales of bars, coins, jewelry and physical trader, on July 5, said the most popular between individual Japanese consumers is the gold bars of 500 grams. Gold imports in Japan are more than doubled to 7,686 kilograms (16,944 pounds) in January to May, from 2,994 kilograms (6,600 pounds) a year earlier. (Numbers by Finance Ministry data)