*
Demand around 20% lower than normal in India- jeweller
*
China Labour Day holiday could spur some activity - dealer
*
China sees small premiums of $1-$6 an ounce
By Rajendra Jadhav and Seher Dareen April 21 (Reuters) - Elevated domestic prices kept physical gold demand muted across Asian hubs this week, forcing dealers in India to offer discounts for a sixth straight week, with the Akshaya Tritiya festival also failing to offer much respite. Akshaya Tritiya, the second-biggest gold-buying festival after Dhanteras, will be celebrated on Saturday.
Demand was around 20% lower than normal as fewer people made bookings for Akshaya Tritiya, said Amit Modak, chief executive officer at jeweller PN Gadgil and Sons. Local gold prices were trading around 60,072 rupees per 10 grams, having hit a record 61,399 rupees earlier this month. Dealers offered discounts of $16 an ounce over official domestic prices — inclusive of 15% import and 3% sales levies — versus last week's $22 discounts. While jewellers usually build stocks ahead of the festival, this year they were buying less in anticipation of weak retail demand, said a Mumbai-based bullion dealer with a private bank. But Akshaya Tritiya did prompt some wholesalers and jewellers in Singapore to pick up bullion, said Brian Lan, managing director at dealer GoldSilver Central. Singapore dealers charged $1-2.20 an ounce premiums over global benchmark spot rates , trading around $1,985 on Friday. High prices slowed purchases in China too, dealers said, with premiums of $1-$6 an ounce, well below the $40 premiums seen last month. "We note that while the PBoC has indeed increased gold reserves, it continues to heavily manage FX via the USDCNY fix, as well as window guidance to banks on gold import," said Bernard Sin, regional director, Greater China, MKS PAMP.
The People's Bank of China controls the amount of gold entering the country via quotas to commercial banks. Hong Kong traders sold bullion at $0.5-$2 premiums .
Peter Fung, head of dealing at Wing Fung Precious Metals,
said China's April 30-May 3 Labour Day holidays could spur
activity in Hong Kong.
(Reporting by Seher Dareen and Kavya Guduru in Bengaluru;
editing by Arpan Varghese and Gareth Jones)
