BLBG:Gold Set To Gain In London On Wealth-Protection Demand
Gold was seen gaining for the first time in three days in London on speculation Europe’s debt crisis and further central bank stimulus will boost demand for a protection of wealth.
Spain’s recession worsened in the second quarter, the Madrid-based National Statistics Institute said today. Gold reached a four-month high yesterday as investors weighed whether the Federal Reserve will embark on a third round of quantitative easing. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will speak in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Aug. 31. Holdings in gold-backed exchange-traded products climbed to a record.
“There’s a lot of talk of gold coming back as a safe-haven asset,” Bernard Sin, head of currency and metal trading at bullion refiner MKS Finance SA in Geneva, said today by phone. “As long as the QE3 discussion is on the table, gold will continue to trade higher.”
Immediate-delivery bullion rose 0.1 percent to $1,664.95 an ounce by 10:20 a.m. in London. Prices reached $1,676.90 yesterday, the highest since April 13. December-delivery futures were 0.5 percent lower at $1,667.20 on the Comex in New York.
Holdings in bullion-backed ETPs gained 3 metric tons yesterday to a record to 2,451.6 tons, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The holdings overtook France as the world’s fourth-largest hoard when compared with national reserves on Aug. 21 and are near Italy’s assets of 2,451.8 tons, data compiled by Bloomberg and the International Monetary Fund show.
Russia expanded its gold reserves by 18.6 tons in July, the most since October, and Kazakhstan increased them for a 12th consecutive month, data on the IMF’s website showed. Turkey, Ukraine and the Kyrgyz Republic expanded bullion reserves in July and Guatemala and Mexico reduced them, the data show.
Silver rose 0.4 percent to $30.83 an ounce, after climbing to $31.265 yesterday, the highest since May 1. Platinum fell 1.2 percent to $1,525.75 an ounce. Palladium was down 1.1 percent at $643.60 an ounce.
To contact the reporter for this story: Nicholas Larkin in London at nlarkin1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net
