The rising momentum of domestic and international gold markets since the start of 2006 has invigorated the boom of gold trading in China. An insider of CCB claimed that there were two features about the gold price since the start of the year: firstly, the price is on a rising trend, up from $500 an ounce to $700 an ounce; secondly, the short-term fluctuation intensifies. The fluctuation overnight sometimes reached $20 per ounce, which offered investors with sufficient profit margins. According to preliminary calculation, the average returns of investment (ROI) for “account gold” (paper gold) investor exceeded 10%. The insider also said that there was a significant increase of account gold investors in the first four months of 2006, as 5 times as the new additions in 2005 alone. The trading volume also witnessed a sharp rise, with over 4 tons of gold traded in the market in the first 4 months of 2006 and with the total trading value reaching RMB 600 million. The insider predicted that the trading value is expected to exceed 20 tons in 2006.

It’s reported that CCB started to prepare gold products targeted at individual investors a couple of years ago. Last year CCB formally launched Longdingjin - its gold product targeted at individual investors, covering both account gold (paper gold) and physical gold.