True to its reputation of rising in times of distress, gold rallied the most on Friday since the global financial meltdown of 2008 after the UK voted to leave the European Union.
Prices of the yellow metal — already up 24 per cent for 2016 — surged as much as 8.1 per cent on Friday to touch $1,358.54 an ounce, it’s highest since March 2014. This rally was the biggest daily jump since 2008.
In India, gold prices surged to a 26-month high of ₹30,885 per ten grams on Friday. Yellow metal saw the biggest single-day gain of ₹1,215 since August 2013. Gold also saw the highest closing level of ₹30,730 after April 28, 2014.
A lot of people in India had almost written the demise of gold as an asset class and forgotten the yellow metal with equities providing better return opportunities.
But now there is strong perception that gold is starting off a bull market of its own given the uncertainty in global financial markets.
If the Indian equity markets performance is not that great, some of the allocations may move into gold in the coming days, say equity market observers.