Latest News in Brief
Gold sinks to 2-year low; other precious metals hit
SINGAPORE: Gold sank further into bear-market territory on Monday as prices dropped to a two-year trough on fears of central bank sales and less monetary stimulus, while holdings on global exchange-traded funds hit their lowest in more than a year.Along with gold, investors ditched other commodities from oil to copper after a less-than-forecast growth in China's gross domestic product in the first quarter stoked doubts about the health of the global economy.
Gold hit an intraday high at $1,495.16 an ounce, but then plunged to $1,427.14, its lowest since April 2011. It stood at $1,452.50 by 0709 GMT, down $25.85.
Having fallen nearly 7 percent over two sessions, gold is on course for its biggest two-day drop since September 2011.
"Breaking $1,500 is not a good sign for gold. We don't know what the next support level is going to be," said Ronald Leung, chief dealer at Lee Cheong Gold Dealers in Hong Kong.
"Even though there are some shorts in the market, I think people still want to push the price down. There's no excuse to push it up, unless there's a war between North and South Korea. There should be a rebound as the market is already oversold."
US futures for June delivery extended losses to fall more than 5 percent as Tokyo gold futures tumbled around 8 percent, marking Japanese futures biggest daily fall since September 2011.
"I am sure we will see much higher prices after the correction. We broke $1,530 after sell orders on COMEX were triggered," said Domenic Parli, a physical dealer at Hong Kong-based Fine Metal Asia.
"This morning in Asia, we had the reaction to what happened on Friday," said Parli, adding that physical buyers could take advantage of the price drop.
Other precious metals were also hit by heavy selling, with silver falling to its lowest since November 2010, platinum at its weakest since August last year, and palladium hitting a three-month low.
Although jewellers could snatch the opportunity to stock up, a meagre increase in premiums for gold bars suggested that consumers were buying time. Gold slipped into a bear market last week after plunging more than 5 percent on Friday to below $1,500 for the first time since July 2011.
Premiums for gold bars ticked up to $1.50 to the spot London prices in Singapore, versus $1.20 last week.
"I think jewellers are the happiest lot, but wholesellers will stay on the sidelines at the moment. It's human nature. When the price crashes like this, they will tend to wait for it to go even lower," a dealer in Singapore said.
PAKISTAN BUSINESS NEWS:
South Africa, Pakistan eye $1bn trade
ISLAMABAD, April 15: Pakistan and South Africa here on Monday set a
moderate bilateral trade target of $1bn till 2015 that would be achieved by
improving the trade mechanism between the two countries.At present, trade between the two countries is very nominal as South Africa’s trade with world is $75 to $80bn and its trade with Pakistan is less than one per cent of its total trade.
“We can even surplus the set trade target if trade mechanism is improved,” Deputy Director General Asia and Middle-East, Department of International Relations and Cooperation Anil Sookal said at the third session of Pakistan-South Africa Joint Commission meeting.The third session of Pakistan-South Africa Joint Commission meeting was held here on Monday during which progress on about eight MoUs was discussed.
In light of the understanding reached earlier at the second joint commission meeting, substantive deliberations took place in the meeting in a cordial and constructive manner on a number of relevant aspects relating to bilateral trade, enhanced economic cooperation and identifying areas of mutual cooperation.
Both the sides agreed for a close interaction between various ministries to deliberate in-depth on related aspects and propose concrete steps to move forward.
The Pakistan delegation that participated in the talks was led by Additional Foreign Secretary, Seema Naqvi while the South African delegation was headed by Anil Sookal.
Both the sides thoroughly discussed progress on various MoUs in various sectors of economy, including health, higher education, agriculture, mining, information technology, narcotics control and defence production.
The Joint Commission meeting stressed the need for trade promotion and enhancing market access in both the countries besides suggesting signing an MoU between trade promotion bodies of both the countries.—APP
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Record
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WOLRD
BUSINESS(Brief News):
o Life
Tech in $13.6 billion buyout by Thermo Fisher
o Copper
at lowest in 1-1/2 years after Chinese data
o Dish
offers to buy Sprint for $25.5 billion
o Instant
View: Dish Network bids $25.5 billion for Sprint Nextel
o Lehman
Europe creditors may be repaid in full
o Futures
lower after China data as commodities fall
o Zimbabwe's
March inflation slows to 2.76 percent y/y
o Gold
slumps to two-year low below $1,400 per ounce
o Tunisia
and IMF reach agreement on $1.78 bln loan: govt official
o George
Smith of the Australian national rugby team Wallabies participates in a
training session for the Bledisloe Cup rugby matc
o Risk
assets hit as China data stir recovery fears
o S.Africa's
rand extends losses, down 1.5 percent against dollar
o Ugandan
c.bank intervenes again to slow shilling gains
Business News:
Pakistan
EXCHANGE FOR CURRENCY NOTES:
U.S.A 99.18
S.Arabia 26.45
U.K 151.96
Japan 1.0155
Euro 129.68
U.A.E 27.00
BULLION RATES IN RUPEES PER 10 GRAMS
KARACHI
Gold Tezabi (24-ct) Rs45,863
Silver Tezabi Rs762.85
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