Then there is the continuing evidence of the growing number of central banks announcing that they are buying more bullion. Korea, Russia, Ukraine or Mexico are all recent examples of this trend. Thus, the Russian central bank reported this week that its gold holdings increased to 30.1m ounces as of 1 August, up from 29.5m ounces on 1 July, accounting for 9.5% of its total international reserves (see Figure 19). While the World Gold Council reported that central banks' gold reserves increased by 157.5 tonnes in 2Q12, the largest quarterly net buying since the official sector became a net buyer in 2Q09 (see Figure 20). The conclusion for investors is stupefyingly simple. Stay long gold.

David Fuller's view Technically, this has been an extremely important week for gold (weekly & daily). (See also this week's earlier Comments on gold and other precious metals)