(Kitco News)- Theamount of gold and silver transferred between accounts of London Bullion MarketAssociation members fell during July, the organization reported Monday.
TheLBMA releases clearing statistics each month showing the net volume of gold andsilver transferred between accounts of members, essentially providing asnapshot of the amount of trading activity.
Average daily transfersduring July decreased by 3.9% from the prior month to 19.2 million ounces, theLBMA said. The average value transferred decreased by 7.1% to $23.8 billion.The average number of daily transfers was 2,851, which was 8.9% higher thanJune. Clearers settled an average of 6,737 ounces per transfer, which was 11.7%lower than the prior month.
For silver,the average volume of ounces transferred daily during July decreased by 8.3% month-on-monthto 210 million ounces, with the average value transferred 12.8% lower at $3.3billion. The average number of transfers during July was 904, which was 10%lower than in June. Clearers settled on average 232,347 ounces per transfer, whichwas 1.8% higher than in the prior month, the LBMA said.
The averagegold/silver price ratio in July was 78.8, the LBMA reported.
The 19.2 millionounces of gold transferred daily in July was also down year-on-year, fallingfrom 20 million in July 2017, the LBMA said. However, silver transfers of 210million ounces daily were up year-on-year from 207.10 million in July 2017.
Meanwhile, theLBMA reported that the total amount of physical gold and silver held inthe London vaults as at the end of May was 7,731 tonnes and 34,121 tonnes,respectively. This was valued at the time at $324.5 billion and $18.2 billion,respectively.
The data includes the physical holdings of eight vaults. Threeare clearing members of LPMCL (HSBC, ICBC Standard Bank and JP Morgan), fourare security carriers (Brinks, G4S Cash Solutions UK, Malca-Amit and LoomisInternational Ltd.) and the Bank of England. The BOE holds gold in its vaultsbut not silver.
By Allen SykoraFor Kitco News
Follow @AllenSykora