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Gold on Monday traded at the biggest premium to platinum since April 2013. Bullion was near a four-month high, amid demand for a haven.
An ounce of gold bought 1.012 ounces of platinum in London, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The ratio had mostly held below one since April 2013. Holdings in gold-backed exchange-traded products jumped 26.2 tonnes in the two days through January 16, the biggest advance since 2011.
Bullion climbed 4.7 per cent last week, the most since August 2013, after the Swiss National Bank decided to let the currency trade freely against the euro and deepened negative deposit rates. On the Mumbai spot market, meanwhile, gold reached a four-month high of Rs 28,050 per 10g, on global cues. Amid strong domestic gold decand due to the wedding season, high spot market prices have hit consumer sentiment for some time.
On global gold prices, Suki Cooper, an analyst at Barclays Plc, wrote in a note: "Risk aversion and uncertainty across Europe have buoyed prices to September highs, driving the platinum-gold spread into a discount... Safe-haven buying bolstered prices initially as inflation expectations tilted to deflationary fears, and growing concerns across Europe saw the euro weakening."
Gold for immediate delivery lost 0.3 per cent to $1,277.14 an ounce by 11:15 am in London, after reaching $1,283 earlier on Monday, the highest since September 2. Platinum fell 0.3 per cent to $1,263.25.
