THE LAST two weeks have seen what China's People's Daily newspaper describes as a "tussle" between "Wall Street moguls and Chinese housewives" to determine the gold price.

In Hong Kong, gold retailers say they have been "swamped" by buyers from mainland China during this week's three-day May Day holiday that ran to Wednesday, China Daily reports, with many buyers citing gold's price drop in April as the reason they are buying gold.

In mainland China, figures released by the Shanghai Commission of Commerce show 3.37 billion Yuan ($539 million) was spent with gold retailers across the city between Monday and Wednesday, an 18.8% rise on last year's May Day holiday period.

Over in the US however, the world's biggest gold exchange traded fund SPDR Gold Trust (ticker: GLD) has seen the volume of gold held to back its shares decrease by nearly 12% since the start of April. The GLD has been used by several prominent funds such as Paulson & Co. and the Soros Fund to gain exposure to the gold price, with Paulson being the GLD's biggest stakeholder.

Another hedge fund, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, which includes gold as one of its top six holdings, ended the month down 0.6%, despite gains in other positions such as General Motors and Vodafone. Paulson & Co. is yet to release its April figures.