KRX Gold Jumps Over 5% as Bar and ETF Demand Returns

KRX Gold: Watch the Shift in Order Flow, Not Just the Rebound

Gold prices on the Korea Exchange (KRX) have rebounded more than 5% over the past two days, while bank gold-bar sales have increased and spot gold ETF flows have returned to net buying. The trend reported by ChosunBiz signals more than a simple price rebound for investors. Buyers have begun moving simultaneously into both physical gold and listed products.

Spot gold ETFs are exchange-traded funds designed to track the spot price of gold. Physical gold bars and spot gold ETFs offer different ways to invest, but the data show the same underlying trend: demand has revived following the price decline. Still, this change alone is not yet enough to conclude that gold prices have entered a trend reversal.

Gold Recovers to 178,460 Won but Remains About 33% Below 2026 High

Gold with a purity of 99.99% closed at 178,460 won per gram on the Korea Exchange (KRX) gold market the previous day. It rose by nearly 3% for two consecutive days from 168,970 won per gram on November 3, but the previous day’s closing price remained about 33% below this year’s high of 269,810 won per gram, recorded on January 29.

The real takeaway is that the strength of the rebound must be assessed separately from the current price level. The gains over the past two days suggest that buying sentiment has recovered rapidly, but the gap from this year’s high remains substantial. Current prices reflect a short-term rebound; it would be difficult to argue that a recovery to the peak has already been priced in.

Expectations of capital rotation also emerged after the U.S. Democratic Party secured majorities in both the Senate and the House in the midterm elections. An official at a commercial bank said expectations were growing that funds concentrated in artificial intelligence and semiconductor stocks would shift into gold. However, no causal relationship between the gold-price rebound and the election results has been established, so investors should focus on actual buying flows rather than political interpretations.

Money Flows Into Gold Bars and ACE·TIGER KRX Spot Gold ETFs

Gold-bar sales at KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, and NH NongHyup totaled 29.8 billion won last month, up from 29.1 billion won the previous month. Although sales figures for each bank were not disclosed, aggregate physical-gold demand across the five major banks clearly increased month over month.

The shift was even clearer in ETFs. After retail investors recorded net sales of 18.4 billion won in ACE KRX Spot Gold from October 12–16 and 9.4 billion won from October 19–23, they switched to net purchases of 2.4 billion won during October 26–30, the final week of the month. This indicates that retail money that had exited during the price decline began flowing back in.

TIGER KRX Spot Gold also shifted from net sales of 12.9 billion won during October 12–16 to net purchases of 2 billion won during October 19–23 and 1.2 billion won during October 26–30. The same trend across two different spot gold ETFs suggests a broader recovery in spot gold investment demand rather than a change confined to one product.

Global trends also provide context. According to the World Gold Council, global gold ETF inflows totaled $31 billion, or approximately 41.6 trillion won, from July through September this year—the highest since relevant records began in 2003. The recent shift in domestic supply-demand (order flow) should be considered alongside these inflows into global gold ETFs.

Investors Should Track the Rebound’s Durability and Its Buyers

• Price: If Korea Exchange (KRX) gold prices sustain their recent rebound, investors will have more evidence to assess whether demand for physical gold and ETFs will continue. Conversely, if prices reverse again, the first question will be whether the recent shift to buying was merely a short-term response.
• ETF supply-demand (order flow): Continued net buying of ACE KRX Spot Gold and TIGER KRX Spot Gold would strengthen the view that the shift in domestic retail investor flows was not limited to a single week.
• Physical demand: If gold-bar sales at KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, and NH NongHyup continue to rise month over month, the pattern of price gains moving in tandem with physical buying will remain intact.
• Limits of interpretation: The data do not show whether the gold-price rebound will persist or how large future demand for gold bars and gold ETFs will be. Treating the U.S. Democratic Party’s midterm victory as the definitive cause of higher gold prices would put interpretation ahead of actual supply-demand (order flow).

The bullish scenario is one in which the gold-price rebound continues alongside buying of gold bars and ETFs. The opposing scenario would see prices turn lower and both ETFs revert to net selling. The next assessment should depend not on political expectations, but on whether Korea Exchange (KRX) gold prices, retail net purchases of the two spot gold ETFs, and gold-bar sales at the five major banks continue moving in the same direction.

This article was automatically summarized and analyzed based on the original news report. View the original article (ChosunBiz)