Private investors scaled back their enthusiasm toward physical gold last month, as the BullionVault Gold Investor Index slipped to 54 last month from October’s six-month high of 54.3.

Private investor enthusiasm toward physical gold slipped to 54 last month from October's six-month high of 54.3, and is down from 56.5 a year ago, according to BullionVault's latest Gold Investor Index reading.  

Yet demand remains “solid,” as the reading wound up the best three-month average since June, when the sharpest quarterly drop in prices since 1983 stimulated interest in the precious metal, the online gold and silver exchange said.

The index compares the number of BullionVault users adding to their gold holdings over those who reduce them (as a proportion of all gold-owning clients at the start of the month).

As it peaked at 71.1 in September 2011, the firm said a reading of 50 would signal an equal number of net gold buyers and sellers amongst BullionVault's 50,000 global users (around 89 per cent of the firm's users live in North America or Europe).

“Last month was the worst November for gold prices since 1978 in dollars, and the worst since 1981 in sterling. Once again, BullionVault users took advantage to grow their holdings, extending their response to the 2013 price crash,” said Adrian Ash, head of research in London.

“Whether such patience and accumulation will be rewarded in 2014 remains to be seen. But in buying the dips like this, Western private investors are starting to track the behavior of Asia's traditionally strong gold-buying consumers more closely,” Ash said.

BullionVault noted that, by weight, customers have now bought back 60 per cent of the 1.2 tons sold during the April-June liquidation, taking aggregate gold holdings back above 32.5 tons.