NH Nonghyup Bank has started selling silver bars, becoming the fourth of Korea’s major commercial lenders to offer the precious metal to retail investors in the country amid explosive demand for the safe haven asset at a time of rising economic uncertainties.

The bank said Monday that it has started offering 1-kilogram silver bars through its sales branches. For the day, one 1-kilogram silver bar was priced at around 930,000 won ($766), inclusive of 10-percent value added tax. The bank also expanded its offering of gold bars, adding a 3.75-gram bar to previous six types of 10-gram, 37.5-gram, 100-gram, 187.5-gram, 375-gram, and 1-kilogram bars.

Demand for safe assets have been skyrocketing in Korea, like elsewhere in the world, amid growing uncertainties in the global financial market due to protracted trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies, the United States and China.

The price of silver, along with gold, has been rising rapidly on demand hike. According to Woori Bank, the price of silver that stood at 669,240 won per kilogram as of end-January rose to 700,000 won in July then to over 800,000 won in late August. This was in line with the jump in global silver prices that rose from around $15 per ounce (31.1 grams) to $18 over the same period.

The volume of silver sold at KRX Gold Market from the first six months of this year reached 17.9 tons, expanding by nearly 18 times from the same period last year. Woori Bank and KB Kookmin Bank, two of the country’s major lenders in the first half of this year sold 698 million won worth of silver bars, an 18-fold jump from a year earlier.

Market experts anticipate the price of silver bars as well as transaction volume to continue their upward trend for a while, as many find silver is still undervalued compared to gold. Moreover, the demand for the precious metals is expected to grow even stronger with the U.S. central bank’s hint of an additional cut in policy interest rates.

By Kim Tae-sung and Cho Jeehyun

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]