Gold stocks worth $2.9 trillion

LONDON - The market value of above-ground stocks of gold was estimated at just over US$2 trillion ($2.9 trillion) at the end of last year while turnover in global markets totalled US$5.6 trillion, International Financial Services London said.

"Although the gold and silver markets are relatively small compared with the global equity and bond market, turnover is high," IFSL said in its first report on the global bullion market.

The private sector organisation, which promotes British financial services industries, estimated that the total volume of identifiable above-ground gold at the end of last year was about 155,000 tonnes (about five billion troy ounces).

IFSL said much of that had been mined in the past 100 years and more than 85 per cent of all the gold that had ever been mined was still in existence.

London remained by far the largest centre for over-the-counter (OTC) trading of gold and silver, although the report said exchange-traded transactions had grown in recent years with New York's Comex and Tokyo's Tocom generating most activity.

Volumes of both metals cleared through the London Bullion Market Association had dropped significantly during the past six years.

The report said turnover on the LBMA of gold and silver last year was less than half the 1998 total, which it attributed mainly to a fall in proprietary trading by banks and brokerages. "It should also be noted that the actual volume is probably three to five times the reported turnover because transactions which are netted out are cleared without appearing in the statistics."

Futures and options traded on the OTC had also risen.

- REUTERS