According to Mitra, investments in gold exchange traded funds (ETF), currently at about 13 tonnes, is set to rise by double digits in the near-term.

Meanwhile according to figures with the WGC, the global jewellery demand which totalled 408.7 tonnes during the second quarter, declined 5 per cent from year-earlier levels. This comes as the smallest decline in the rolling four-quarter performance since the first quarter of 2008, signaling a deceleration in the pace of decline in global jewellery demand. However, expressed in  $ value terms, jewellery demand aggregated $15.7 billion which was, 23 per cent higher than the $12.8 billion level in Q2 2009.

Jewellery off-take was lower across most markets, with only a few countries bucking the trend to report an increase over Q2 2009.
However, the picture is different when seen in consideration of global jewellery demand in value terms, with a few markets experiencing a decline in the $ value of gold jewellery off-take.

At the country level, the Southeast Asian markets of Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea experienced worst falls in Q2 gold jewellery demand due to high price levels.

The Middle East region saw a mixed quarter, with Saudi Arabia (+5 per cent YoY) witnessing a rise in gold jewellery demand on improved domestic economic scenario. Hong Kong recorded the largest rise in tonnage jewellery (+34 per cent YoY), demand with its recovery from  the very weak levels of Q2 2009, when demand was badly affected by swine flu.