China launches yuan gold fix, seeks more influence in commodity pricing
China, the world’s biggest producer and consumer of bullion, rolled out a new yuan-denominated gold pricing fix on Tuesday as it seeks to establish greater influence in international commodities pricing.
The Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE), the world’s largest physical gold exchange, set the inaugural fix at 256.92 yuan ($39.71) per gram while the PM fix was set at 257.29 yuan ($39.76) per gram.
“The market was very active today, participation was good – banks and other gold companies were all involved in the fix,” a market participant in Shanghai said.
“It will be interesting to see how much interest fixing orders on the SGE will attract over the coming weeks,” MKS noted.
The 12 fixing members include 10 Chinese banks and two foreign banks – Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, China Minsheng Bank, Industrial Bank, Ping An Bank, Bank of Shanghai, Standard Charted Bank (China) and Australia and New Zealand Bank (China).
Another six companies – China National Gold Group Corp, Shangdong Gold Group, Shanghai Lao Feng Xiang, Chow Tai Fook, Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd and MKS (Switzerland) SA – take part in the benchmark as reference price members.
“China needs a gold benchmark that reflects local market flows and reduces gold’s price dependency on the US dollar – so this is the ideal time for the Shanghai Gold Benchmark to launch,” Roland Wang of the World Gold Council said.
“An Asian-focused, yuan-denominated benchmark will significantly increase the liquidity and efficiency of the gold price discovery mechanism,” Wang added.
The exchange aims to attract the interest of foreign participants by allowing foreign price-setting companies and their clients to trade the contract.
The London gold benchmark includes 13 participants and is quoted in dollars per ounce and set via a twice-daily electronic auction process run by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). |
