Gold gains on safe-haven demand as Middle East conflict widens

Gold prices climbed on Thursday as a widening conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran drove investors toward the safe-haven asset.

Spot gold was up 0.8 per cent at $5,177.33 per ounce, as of 04:35 (GMT) US gold futures for April delivery were up 1pc at $5,185.50.

“Gold benefits from the kind of geopolitical risks that we’ve seen flared up in the last few days. So (prices rose due to) a bit of a function of normalising financial conditions and a US dollar that’s pulling back from highs,” said Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com.

The dollar retreated from a more than three-month high touched earlier this week, making greenback-priced bullion less expensive for holders of other currencies.

The war widened sharply on Wednesday after a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka, killing at least 80 people, and Nato air defences destroyed an Iranian ballistic missile fired towards Turkey.

The escalation came as the son of Iran’s slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei emerged as a frontrunner to succeed him, suggesting Tehran was........

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