Investors bet on gold as panic grips global markets

Panicky investors flocked to safe havens like gold as Britain voted in favour of leaving the European Union, triggering uncertainty in the global financial market. ‘Brexit’ has caused havoc in markets worldwide, including India.

As in most crisis, investors pulled out of equities and bought gold, causing the yellow metal to surge sharply in bullion markets globally. In India, on the commodity exchange MCX, at 12:45 PM, gold was trading 5.59% up at Rs 31,585 for 10 grammes. This is the highest level in almost three years.

Globally, the yellow metal was trading at its highest since 2014 as immediate delivery jumped by as much as 8.1% to $1,385.54 an ounce.

Since London is also the center of the commodity trade, the panic situation impacted prices of metals such as steel, copper and aluminum. On the MCX, prices of the base metals fell in the range of 1-3% which is likely to have an impact on Indian mining and metal companies which had just begun to see a revival, after China had recently started to emerge out of its slowdown.