By Henning Gloystein
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold and oil edged up in nervous trading on Monday following the deadly attacks on Paris and large-scale French airstrikes in Syria, although broader commodities markets remain weak on poor fundamentals.
Gold, typically seen as a safe haven in times of heightened risk, jumped about 1 percent as Asian shares and U.S. stock futures fell, while the euro skidded to a 6-1/2 month low. Oil prices edged higher, but copper slipped to a six-year low.
Multiple attacks in Paris on Friday killed more than 130 people, prompting France to launch air strikes in Syria against Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attacks.
"Safe-haven buying following the terrible events in Paris over the weekend has taken gold higher this morning," said MKS Group trader Sam Laughlin.
Spot gold, which had fallen for 12 of the 13 previous sessions on expectations of higher U.S interest rates, rose 0.9 percent to $1,093.40 an ounce by 0550 GMT, while U.S. gold futures rose more than 1 percent.
More From This Section
Turnover in the most-active December Comex gold futures was unusually high with just under 3,000 lots changing hands in the first 10 minutes, equivalent to $316 million and nearly 10 times the average for that period over the past two months, according to Reuters calculations.
Heightened risk fears also boosted volumes in crude oil futures in early trading, and led to a pause in a recent run of declines.
Front-month U.S. crude futures were trading at $40.93 a barrel at 0552 GMT, up 19 cents from their last close. Internationally traded Brent was at $44.82 a barrel, up 35 cents.
"France started to increase its participation against ISIS in Syria. This has pushed prices up only slightly, preventing the bearish momentum from continuing," said Daniel Ang of Singapore-based Phillip Futures.
Generally though, he said oil markets remained bearish due to oversupply.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said last Friday that there was a record 3 billion barrels of crude and oil products in tanks worldwide, comparable to a months' worth of global consumption.
Other analysts also said that oil and many raw material prices would remain under pressure from fundamentals as production remains high despite slowing global economic growth, especially from China but also Japan, which slipped back into recession in the third quarter.
"Copper and crude oil prices are likely to remain under pressure short-term," ANZ bank said on Monday as copper on the London Metal Exchange slumped to its weakest since July 2009 at $4,783 a tonne before recovering slightly. Copper prices have shed a quarter of their value this year.
(Additional reporting by Josephine Mason in Beijing, Melanie Burton in Melbourne and A. Ananthalakshmi in Singapore; Editing by Ed Davies and Richard Pullin)
