Friday, December 3 2010 18:35
ARARATBANK resumes transactions with small gold bars
ArmInfo. ARARATBANK has resumed the transactions with small gold bars. Deputy Chairman of Board of ARARATBANK David Haroutyunyan told ArmInfo correspondent that taking into account that Christmas is in the offing and small bars as a gold souvenir will be in big demand, the bank has started importing small gold bars weighing 1-20g from Europe. He added that the price quotation for gold bars will be fixed starting from the current week.
As of 3 December 2010, a gold bar weighing 1g costs 20087,5 AMD (purchase=18894 AMD, sale=21281 AMD), a 2-gram gold bar costs 35997 AMD (purchase=33858 AMD, sale=38136 AMD), a 5-gram gold bar - 85975 AMD (purchase=80866 AMD, sale=91084 AMD), a 10-gram gold bar - 166662 AMD (purchase=157954 AMD, sale=175370 AMD), and a 20-gram gold bar - 324522,5 AMD (purchase=308349 AMD, sale=340696 AMD. Haroutyunyan said that according to the latest On-Line price quotation in the international market, 1 ounce of gold costs $1399.
Haroutyunyan said that the bank is going to continue the operations with small gold bars in 2011, moreover, bars of bigger weight (maximum 1kg) may be imported to Armenia with due regard for the demand. In the future the bank may provide services according to metallic accounts, but one should wait for the decision of the Central Bank of Armenia, which provides banks with the opportunity to open and serve metallic accounts.
The State Depository of Precious Metals and Stones of the Armenian Finance Ministry says that according to the prices of precious metals fixed for November 29-December 3 2010, the selling price per 1 g of gold is 15825.87 AMD, having risen by 0,8% as compared with the previous week. Since the beginning of 2010, the selling price per 1 g of gold has risen by 15,7%.
To note, as of 1 October 2010, ArmSwissBank, Unibank, VTB Bank (Armenia), Converse Bank and Artsakhbank carry out operations with small gold bars in the banking system of Armenia. Starting from the current week ARARATBANK re-launched similar operations after almost a two-year break.
According to the Ranking of Commercial Banks of Armenia prepared by the Agency of Rating Marketing Information (ArmInfo), the balance of small bars of precious metals made up 361.6 mln AMD, having increased almost thrice since the beginning of 2010. ArmSwissBank is in the lead; Unibank, Converse Bank, VTB Bank (Armenia), Artsakhbank (which has been in the gold market since June 2010) rank next.
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