Gold-this is of interest...
"miningmx.com] -- THE gold price had been lent further momentum by investors anticipating central banks would make good on comments they would buy gold, Bloomberg News reported.
"Some investors are buying gold partly in anticipation of central bank buying," Stephen Briggs, a London-based analyst at Societe Generale, said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
"The market believes that central banks such as in Asia are or are going to start buying, although we have not seen any evidence of this," Briggs said. "Bad facts are ignored, good hopes are focused on. That's what happens in a bull market."
Last year, the Russian central bank said it was interested in adding to its gold reserves. Analysts have also speculated on the increase to gold demand were China to increase its gold holdings from its current 1% of total assets.
Meanwhile, the gold price was subject to increasingly larger price swings. "It took 45 minutes yesterday to decide the afternoon fix, because they couldn't agree on a price," Briggs said. "The fix normally takes about 10 minutes."
Societe Generale, HSBC Holdings, Bank of Nova Scotia, Barclays and Deutsche Bank conduct the fix, which sets a worldwide benchmark for gold prices, Bloomberg said."
