Bloomberg – Gold rose in Asia, pacing bullion futures in Tokyo, as hedge funds and other large speculators seek to diversify their holdings from currency, stocks and bonds.
Speculators have more than doubled their holdings in gold futures in the past four months, reports from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed. Gold prices on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, or Tocom, the world’s second-largest metals market, gained today for the first day in five.
“Gold still stands as an alternative asset class,” said Darren Heathcote, head of trading at N.M. Rothschild and Sons (Australia) Ltd. in Sydney.
Gold for immediate delivery rose as much as $3.05, or 0.6 percent, to $506.30 an ounce at 4:55 p.m. Sydney time.
