Gold prices rose on Monday, as continuing concerns about the fate of the debt-laden Chinese real estate giant “China Evergrande”, and its broader impact, which boosted the precious metal’s attractiveness as a safe haven for investment.
And at 09:34 (GMT), the yellow metal rose in spot trading by 5.26 dollars, or 0.37 percent, to trade at 1755.68 dollars an ounce.
And gold futures prices for December delivery rose 0.25 percent, or $4.7, to the level of $1,756.5 an ounce.
Meanwhile, the dollar index rose against six other major currencies by 0.14 percent at 93.468.
Gold has benefited from being a safe haven, as investors are turning to value-preserving tools away from high-risk assets, pending a clarification of the fate of the debt-ridden Evergrande.
On Thursday, the interest on two issues on Evergrande, which it said it would meet, accrued, but none of those bondholders had received their dues until Friday morning.
And “Evergrand” owes about 300 billion dollars, and it is feared that its crisis will spread to other markets, which heralds a series of collapses for major banks and companies around the world, similar to the mortgage crisis in the United States in 2008.
And gold faced pressure in the last sessions of the last week as a result of the dollar’s rise, after signals issued by the Federal Reserve (the US central bank) that it will start slowing its wide program to buy bonds “soon”, followed by raising interest rates.
But the effects of the US Central Bank’s hints on gold began to recede, with it not giving specific dates to start tightening its monetary policy so that investors’ attention turned towards other factors, most notably the risks resulting from the “Evergrand” crisis.
