Gold Climbs on Concern Credit Crisis May Spread Further in Asia

By Feiwen Rong

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Gold climbed for a second day as investors sought the precious metal as a haven amid uncertainty created by the global credit crisis.

Asian currencies have tumbled since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 15 on concern frozen credit markets will trigger a recession. Stocks worldwide have lost about $28 trillion in value this year.

``People are still bullish on the market partly because of concern that the global credit crisis will spread into Asia,'' Ng Cheng Thye, head of precious metals markets at Standard Bank Asia, said today by phone from Singapore. ``People are worried that Asia will not escape from this crisis and that Asian currencies will be significantly weakened if that's a scenario.''

Bullion for immediate delivery jumped as much as $10.10, or 1.2 percent, to $846.80 an ounce before trading at $844.68 at 10:36 a.m. in Singapore. Silver for immediate delivery rose 0.4 percent to $11.005 an ounce.

Asian stocks declined, a day after the region's benchmark index rallied the most in a decade, as concern earnings will deteriorate overshadowed a $2 trillion global push to rescue banks. South Korea's won has tumbled more than 10 percent against the U.S. dollar. India's rupee has weakened 4.2 percent since Sept. 15, while Indonesia's rupiah fell 3 percent in the past month.

``The emerging markets in Asia don't boast a lot of products for investors to put money in, so again they turned to gold amid fear,'' Ng at Standard Bank said.

December-delivery gold gained 0.9 percent to $846.80 an ounce in after-hours electronic trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold for August delivery fell 0.4 percent to 2,750 yen a gram ($843 an ounce) on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange at 10:36 a.m. local time.

To contact the reporter on this story: Feiwen Rong in Singapore at frong2@bloomberg.net