About 200 clients bought 25 kilograms of gold worth about750,000 euros from Piraeus, the only local bank providing thisservice, in less than two months.
Piraeus has been selling gold as coins - British sovereigns or barsranging from five grams to one kilogram through 20 branches inBucharest and big cities since October. Besides BCR, which buysgold from customers, no other bank is currently conducting goldoperations.
Some clients chose to buy in several stages. One of them boughtfour kilograms of gold worth about 120,000 euros. The biggestindividual transaction with gold stood at 2.5 kilograms.
"We expected a slower start. We were surprised by the interest incoins, which were not bought by collectors only," says AlinaPiciorea, head of the corporate and retail sales department ofPiraeus Bank's Treasury.
The bank sold 200 22-carat gold coins, each of which weighing7.98g. The bars are 24 carat each, with a 999.9% purity. Piraeusgets its gold from Credit Suisse, one of the biggest players onthis market in the region.
"There probably are rich Romanians who are advised to buy gold.Gold is regarded as a shelter asset, which maintains its priceduring times of crisis. However, I think it is a mistake to buygold now, when the price is at its all-time peak," says DragosCabat, financial analyst and member of the CFA Romania board.
Piraeus sells the gold as any other product to its retail clients,through the offices included in this program. If looking atyesterday's quote displayed by the bank, 129 RON per gram of gold,the smallest ingot (5 grams) was available for 645 RON. Aone-kilogram bar could be bought for 129,000 RON (about 30,300euros). NBR calculated a price of 109.5 RON per gram of goldyesterday based on quotes on the international markets. BCR wasbuying gold at 74.9 RON per gram yesterday.
Gold quotes on international markets reached new all-time highsyesterday, overshooting the 1,200-dollar/ounce mark for the firsttime. A troy ounce weighs 31.1 grams.
"Gold is not a short-term investment. It can be profitable in thelong run, as an investment that spans over many years. It is a wayto diversify one's long-term investment portfolio," Picioreabelieves. Piraeus does not offer advice to clients who want to buygold as a standard, but makes research reports on such investmentsavailable to those who ask.
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