Gold Jumps to One-Week High After Asian Stock Markets Plunge

By Feiwen Rong

Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Gold jumped to the highest in a week after Asian stocks plunged, driving investors to seek the bullion as a haven asset amid a deepening credit crisis.

Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average posted its biggest drop since October 1987 and Indonesia halted stock trading after the benchmark index tumbled 10 percent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slumped 7.1 percent to 91.70 as of 2:51 p.m. in Singapore, on concern the credit will topple more banks and slowing growth will cut demand for region's exports.

``It's a crisis and people are panicking now,'' Wallace Ng, precious metals trader at Fortis Bank, said by phone from Hong Kong today. ``Investors really want to seek a safe haven as equities and foreign exchange rates dropped.''

Bullion for immediate delivery jumped $15.43, or 1.7 percent, to $902.53 an ounce, the highest since Sept. 30, before trading at $902.27 an ounce at 2:46 p.m. in Singapore. Silver for immediate delivery was up 1.4 percent at $11.74 an ounce.

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