11:10 PM
Friday 06 May 2022
I wrote – Sherine Salah:
Gold dealers who spoke to Masrawy said that there are no government instructions to stop selling gold jewelry in the markets, and that the shops are currently open to customers.
Naguib Naguib, the former Secretary General of the Gold Division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, told Masrawy that the buying and selling movement continues naturally in the gold shops, and there are no instructions to stop the sale.
This was also confirmed by Nagy Farag, head of the Economic Committee of the Gold Division of the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, saying that gold shops are currently operating normally and the buying and selling movement continues.
Farag indicated that there is an increase in demand from some customers for gold pounds and bullion, coinciding with the closure of some stores due to the Eid holidays, and that the market will fully return to work at the beginning of the week.
And some pages of the social networking site, Facebook, circulated that there were instructions to stop trading on gold amid a state of confusion about the exaggeration of gold pricing locally, after the US Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates on the dollar, and speculation about the exchange rate trends locally.
And the page of the “i jewelers” website on Facebook, a company that sells jewelry and bullion on the Internet, announced that it had suspended trading on gold, until further notice, and also stopped announcing prices, “as a result of the confusion in gold prices locally.”
Gold prices in Egypt have witnessed great leaps in recent days, and the price of a gram of 21 karat reached about 1250 pounds, which is the highest ever, according to what Najib told Masrawy.
These increases came intensely after the US Central Bank’s announcement of raising interest rates on the dollar, which raised some expectations about the possibility of an increase in the price of the US currency against the pound.
Naguib told Masrawy that “the prices are currently rising due to the rise in the price of the dollar in the parallel market.”
The price of gold in Egypt is usually linked to the price of the dollar against the pound, especially in the parallel market.
Najib explained that traders are awaiting the return of work in banks next week, to know the official price of the dollar in banks.
Naji Farag stated that the price of a gram will currently remain fixed until the start of trading on global stock exchanges on Monday, in the first session of the week.
The global gold exchange closes on Friday evening, and resumes work on Monday.
According to Bloomberg Agency data, the global price of gold recorded about $ 1882 an ounce, during the trading session on Friday, at 10:39 pm Cairo time.
The merchants said that the movement of buying and selling is currently weak on gold jewelry, due to the high price of the gram.
They added that the demand for gold bullion and pounds is currently more by consumers to take it as a safe haven.