Industry News

Kazakhstan, Mongolia built gold reserves in December

The gold reserves of two Asian nations increased in December, according to information from an international regulator and cited by Bloomberg.

Holdings of the precious metal increased 3.1 metric tons to amount to 76.7 tons in Kazakhstan and Mongolia augmented its holdings by 1.2 tons of bullion, bringing its totals to 3.5 tons, according to data pulled from the International Monetary Fund.

"The trend of emerging countries' official sector gold buying will continue this year, which will be a price-supportive factor going forward," analyst Bayram Dincer with LGT Management in Switzerland told the news source. "The desire of central banks to diversify reserves with hard-currency gold is high and a long-term process."

The precious metal is roughly 13 percent and 5.2 percent of reserves in Kazakhstan and Mongolia, respectively, according to Bloomberg.

Reuters reports the price of gold dropped for a second consecutive day on Wednesday, pulled down by the emboldened dollar that gained in value as the 17-nation single currency suffered from strained negotiations between Greece and its private creditors.

Gold mining stocks may mirror the price of the physical metal for companies that extract the resource in deposit-rich areas like British Columbia.