Gold Trading

 

The Korea Exchange (KRX) announced that it launched a gold trading platform on March 24, saying that the unregulated market would become more transparent.

Last year, Korea’s financial authorities unveiled a plan to set up a gold trading platform in line with the government’s policy to bring the underground economy into the open and secure taxes out of the market. 

According to the Korea Exchange (KRX), 1 gram of 99.99 percent purity bullion of is used to facilitate liquidity, and delivery is made in 1 kilogram bars.

Trading is made from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and transaction fees will be exempted through to March of next year. 

The KRX said a total of 5,987 grams of bullion worth 280 million won (US$259,000) were traded during the first trading session. One gram of bullion closed at 46,950 won (US$43.50), after rising to as high as 47,400 won (US$43.92) at one point.

As for now, 8 securities firms and forty-nine dealers, importers, and wholesalers are registered as a member of the bourse. Retail investors are allowed to participate in the gold exchange, but subject to trading through financial firms. Investors can take physical delivery of gold from the Korea Securities Depository Corp.’s offices in Seoul and five other cities across the nation.

South Korean citizens hold an estimated 720 tons of gold, seven times the 104 tons kept at the central bank. South Korea’s annual gold trading volume reaches some 100 tons, about 70 percent of which is believed to be illegally traded without being taxed. 

The Korean government estimates tax evasion from such illegal trade to be close to 330 billion won (US$305.8 million).

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