Bullion rose as much as 1 percent on Monday as Japan battled to prevent a nuclear catastrophe after a massive earthquake and tsunami, sending premiums for gold bars to their highest level since February in Tokyo. A badly wounded nation has seen whole villages and towns wiped off the map by a wall of water, bringing in its wake an international humanitarian effort of epic scale. More than 10,000 people are feared to have been killed.
Spot gold added $7.07 to $1,424.77 an ounce by 0711 GMT after rising as high as $1,431.89 an ounce as markets began estimating the huge economic costs caused by the disaster. Bullion was still off a record high of $1,444.40 hit last week. "Some investors expect some of the Japanese insurance companies to start selling their dollar assets to raise money. Perhaps gold could be boosted as an alternative currency itself," said Ong Yi Ling, investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.
US gold futures for April rose $1.2 an ounce to $1,423 an ounce. Silver was off an intraday high. Platinum fell more than 2 percent to its weakest since early January on falling equities, putting pressure on palladium. The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, said its holdings edged down to 1,215.475 tonnes by March 11, their lowest since May 2010, from 1,217.295 tonnes on March 7, as some investors booked profits from gold's rise to a record.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.