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SINGAPORE—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
mid-afternoon Wednesday 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 on Wednesday. “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 September 30, before
trading at $902.27 an ounce during the mid-afternoon
session Wednesday in Singapore. Silver for immediate
delivery was up 1.4 percent at $11.74 an ounce.
(Bloomberg) |
