Summary Cash gold shrugged off weakening US bullion futures and jumped as much as 1 percent on Wednesday.
SINGAPORE (Agencies) – Gold jumped as buyers snapped up gold bars, coins and nuggets after prices briefly hit their weakest levels in more than two years in the previous session.
Despite the increase in physical buying, which has led to a shortage of gold bars in Hong Kong and Singapore, bullion may not be out of the woods yet as investors continued to take their holdings off exchange-traded funds.
Gold hit a session high of $1,381.80 an ounce and stood at $,1379.15 by 0347 GMT, up $11.36. Gold, which had tumbled to $1,321.35 on Tuesday, has fallen about 17 percent so far this year after an unbroken 12-year string of gains.
"People are actually buying everything, gold bars, gold coins. People are rushing to get a hand on it. We have a problem meeting the demand because we are unable to get new supply," said Brian Lan, managing director of GoldSilver Central Pte Ltd in Singapore.
