Gold Advances in London as Yesterday’s Plunge Draws Investors

By Chanyaporn Chanjaroen

Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Gold rose in London as yesterday’s plunge, the biggest in more than seven weeks, attracted investors. Platinum and silver also advanced.

Equity markets in Europe and Asia dropped and oil prices fell to the lowest in three years, buoying demand for gold from investors seeking to diversify their portfolios. The U.S. economy began to weaken in December 2007, the Cambridge, Massachusetts- based National Bureau of Economic Research said yesterday.

“There are reports of bargain hunters showing interest in response to the lower priced environment,” John Meyer, head of resources analysis at Fairfax IS Plc in London, said in a report.

Gold for immediate delivery rose $3.29, or 0.4 percent, to $772.24 an ounce by 11:09 a.m. in London, after earlier falling to 762.76, the lowest intraday price since Nov. 21.

December futures were $5.10, or 0.7 percent, lower at $771.70 in electronic trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold fell to $772.50 an ounce in the morning “fixing” in London, used by some mining companies to sell production, from $778 at the previous afternoon fixing.

Imports to India, the world’s biggest consumer of the metal, fell 26 percent last month to about 40 metric tons, according to provisional estimates from the Bombay Bullion Association Ltd., a group of 230 traders. The decline came after the biggest monthly price gain in nine years and jewelry buyers were deterred by an extremist attack last week in Mumbai.

“There were no imports or trading in the last four days of the month because of the terrorist attacks,” Suresh Hundia, president of the association, said in a phone interview today. “There was no real demand as high prices kept buyers away.”

Gold Trust

Gold in the SPDR Gold Trust, the largest exchange-traded fund backed by bullion, were unchanged at 758.12 tons, according to data on the company’s Web site. The fund totaled a record 770.64 tons on Oct. 13, overtaking Japan as the world’s seventh- largest holder of gold.

Gold assets held in exchange-traded funds managed by ETF Securities Ltd. rose to 1.615 million ounces, from 1.606 million on Nov. 28, the Jersey, Channel Islands-based company said today. Platinum assets rose to 135,643 ounces from 134,623, it said.

Among other metals for immediate delivery, silver rose 1.6 percent to $9.42 an ounce. Platinum gained 0.4 percent to $803.50 and palladium lost $2.75, or 1.6 percent, to $173.25.

Lonmin Plc, the world’s third-largest platinum producer, may cut 1,500 jobs at its Limpopo mine, taking the tally of potential redundancies at its South African operations to more than 6,000.

Platinum, after a 48 percent drop this year, is trading at its lowest price relative to gold in about 11 years, signaling investors should buy the silver metal and sell the yellow one, according to Dresdner Bank AG.

“It is a very rare event for platinum to trade this close to or below gold,” Bayram Dincer, an analyst at Dresdner in Zurich, said yesterday by telephone. “You surely have to buy platinum and sell gold. The downside risk is very limited.”

To contact the reporter on this story Chanyaporn Chanjaroen in London at cchanjaroen@bloomberg.net