ArmInfo. In Armenia, precious metals began to lose price faster, accelerating the decline in prices in the weekly context from 0.1% to 4.7%. Moreover, a downtrend is observed for all precious metals.
As the State Depository of Precious Metals and Gemstones Agency at the RA Ministry of Finance told ArmInfo from March 9 to March 15, 2020, the following selling prices for precious metals were set: gram of gold (measured bullion) - 25,281.72 drams (change in weekly dynamics from 2.7 % growth by 0.3% decline), silver - 264.38 drams (acceleration of the weekly decline from 0.6% to 4.9%), platinum - 13,449.35 drams (acceleration of the weekly decline from 5, 8% to 6%), and palladium - 38 659.10 drams (change in weekly dynamics from 3.3% growth to 7.5% decline). According to international exchanges, March 11, 2020. at 4:43pm Moscow time the spot price of a troy ounce of gold was $ 1665.4 (daily decline by 0.07%), silver - $ 17.02 (daily decline by 0.06%), platinum - $ 880 (without daily changes) and palladium - $ 2 420 (daily decline by 0.21) %).
According to analysts, the fact that precious metals stopped the price rally against the backdrop of coronavirus and falling oil prices, is due to the fact that large institutional investors began to take profits to cover stock losses by selling part of their positions in gold. Targeted intervention in the gold market cannot be ruled out in order to slow down the growth of precious metals. The fact is that the demand for physical gold and silver continues to remain at a high level throughout the world. The situation in the financial markets continues to be tense. The crisis of mistrust is growing on the interbank market. At any time, banks may stop lending to each other. In this case, there will be a liquidity crisis. Then they will begin to get rid of the "paper" gold in order to take profits and get cash. The gold market in this case will be under serious pressure. If the situation in the financial markets improves, and investors again show interest in risk, then gold as a protective asset may cease to interest them. Then the cost of precious metal may be under pressure. But the likelihood of such a scenario is small, as the expectation of inflation growth due to the expansion of the money supply will grow. In the medium and long term, gold still has good chances for continued growth.
