Gold costs contacted a fourteen day low on Wednesday because of idealism around reviving of a few economies, however expanding Sino-US erosions over Beijing's proposed security law for Hong Kong tempered misfortunes.
Spot gold plunged 0.3 percent to $1,705.94 per ounce by 0502 GMT, in the wake of hitting its most reduced level since May 13 of $1,703.40 prior in the meeting. US gold prospects were down 0.6 percent to $1,695.80, the Reuters detailed.
On Tuesday, gold had dropped as much as 1.3 percent, to contact $1,707.10, an almost fourteen day low.
"What we saw over the former 24 hours was a break of generally important help at about $1,715," said DailyFx cash specialist Ilya Spivak.
"The positive story is by all accounts facilitating of limitations and (that) there will be a type of bounce back in financial movement… in any case, there is (additionally) a ton of antagonism. Strain between the US and China is an immense hazard."
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Washington was dealing with a solid reaction to China's arranged national security law for Hong Kong, including it would be reported before the week's end.
Asian offers slipped on worries about the rising Sino-US strains.
Senior Vistara employees will go on compulsory leave without pay for up to three days between April 15 and April 30 to help save cash for the airline as it lies idle during India’s lockdown to contain the coronavirus, said CEO Leslie Thng on Wednesday.
The airline introduced on March 27compulsory leave without pay for up to three days between April 1 and April 14 for the same set of senior employees.
The compulsory no pay leave will affect around 1,200 employees in senior grades.
The remaining 2,800 employees of the airline such as members of cabin crew and ground handling services will be unaffected.
"With the announcement by the government of India on extending the lockdown, we continue to suspend all our domestic and international operations till 3rd May 2020 and this further impacted significantly on our cash flow with no revenue being generated over an extended period of time," Thng said in an email to employees, according to news agency PTI.
India’s suspension of domestic and international was extended till May 3 as Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that the nation would stay indoors till that day.
With the lockdown-driven suspension of production and panic buying helping clear stocks, tea plantation companies are expecting a major price surge in May once the second flush season begins.
Industry officials noted that there has already been a shortfall of around 90 million kg (mkg) during March and April, and most of the 50 mkg of tea inventory has been sold as packaging companies bought whatever was available in anticipation of an extension of the lockdown and the resultant surge in consumer demand.
“There is practically no tea in the system now and only small quantities being produced by the south Indian companies. Given this situation and the current loss of production, prices should be healthy once tea starts hitting the market again,” Atul Asthana, managing director, the Goodricke Group told Business Standard.
Though major producing states such as Assam and West Bengal have allowed plantation to commence in a move that should ideally help production and bring tea back into the eco-system, major companies are of the view that there will be no production this month. Assam produces over 50 per cent of the tea in the country while West Bengal accounts for 27 per cent of the total.
“The production loss has already been incurred and even if plantations resume operations, there will be practically no tea available”, D P Maheshwari, managing director at Jay Shree Tea and Industries told Business Standard.
Vivek Goenka, executive director, Warren Tea explained that owing to estate closures before, the bushes are already overgrown and skiffing needs to be done first before any production can take place. This skiffing acitivity usually takes 7-10 days but may stretch longer given the limited manpower availability.
While Assam has sanctioned a maximum of 50 per cent of the total workforce in an estate at a time, the allowed limit in West Bengal is even lower at 25 per cent.
“Usually during this time, we need to deploy all the manpower available with us but now I don’t know how production and skiffing activities will progress given the cap,” Maheshwari added.
Rating agency Icra said that it expects tea estates to substantially reduce the number of temporary workers during the period of low production.
“Nonetheless, the impact of a reduction in production, because of fixed costs and loss in contribution, is estimated to increase the cost by nearly Rs 15 per kg on the balance production during the rest of the year, assuming that normal production returns by the time second flush teas become available. Any decline in production in the second flush teas would result in a substantially higher cost per kg,” Icra said.
Companies are optimistic that the lockdown situation will improve May onwards and by the time the second flush season begins in the third week of May, skiffing and pruning activities will be over and manpower deployment conditions will improve as well.
“I think by the time the second flush production begins, things will normalise to a large extent”, Asthana added.
Tea buyers, however, cautioned that given the uncertainty in the economy owing to the pandemic, there is still some doubt about price movements.
“We have noticed that consumers are already stocking up essential as well as non-essential items and there exists much doubt in consumers’ mind about the future as companies may resort to retrenchment or salary cuts. As a result, discretionary spends like tea may get affected,” a buyer said.
Icra has also cautioned that while ideally prices should improve sizably under a normal demand-and-supply scenario, but the current scenario is that of uncertainty.
“The trend in export as well as domestic demand would be the main factors determining the trend in tea prices. Most of the premium export markets of Indian teas are suffering under the Covid-19 outbreak. Apart from any decline in demand, logistical issues could also have an impact on the volume of exports to those countries,” the agency noted.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has estimated that one sick person could infect up to 406 others in 30 days if there was no lockdown, health ministry officials said on Tuesday as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases climbed to 4,789.
The ICMR study comes at a time when various state governments have requested the Centre to extend the 21-day lockdown beyond April 14.
The study talks about a scenario where 75 per cent of the lockdown is lifted. In such a situation, the same person would infect 2.5 persons.
“It is important to adopt lockdown measures, as it has been said that social distancing is the social vaccine. We request everyone to help us help you,” said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, health ministry.
The ICMR had earlier estimated the R-naught, or R0, a unit which measures how many people can one patient infect, between 1.5 and 4. For its latest study, ICMR assumed the RO to be 2.5. One of the highest ROs was seen in measles — 10.
Raman R Gangakhedkar, head of ICMR’s epidemiology and communicable diseases division, told the media that 107,006 tests for Covid-19 have been conducted till date. Around 136 government labs are engaged in this exercise and another 59 private labs have been permitted to carry out these tests.
chart The health ministry has also devised a strategy to manage the Covid-19 patients based on the level of illness. For those with mild infection, a Covid care centre will be provided using lodges, hostels, stadium, upgrading existing quarantine facilities.
For a moderate-level infection, a dedicated Covid health centre with assured oxygen support will be put in place with separate exit and entry to stop the spread of infection. The severely infected patients will be put in Covid health hospitals with intensive care units, ventilators and oxygen support.
