According to a fund manager, the price of gold will beat the record high it set on Monday and go much higher. As fears grow throughout the globe, gold and other precious metals prices grow as they appeal to investors as a safe haven investment.
Published: Thursday, 21 Jul 2011 | 8:21 AM ET
By: Catherine Boyle
Web Producer
CNBC.com
The price of gold could beat the record high of $1,609.51 an ounce it hit earlier this week, a fund manager told CNBC Thursday.
"Gold will go much higher," said Irakli Menabde, founding partner of fund manager M2 Capital Partners.
"It's one of the most attractive investment opportunities out there."
The price of spot gold [XAU=1588.50 -11.60(-0.72%)] has tripled since the current bull market began five years ago.
While the price of gold usually falls during the summer, the past month has been very different.
During the last sizeable spike, in the 1970s, it saw a 24-fold increase from $35 to $850 per ounce, according to Menabde.
"Gold is a reflection of what's going on in fiscal and monetary policies of the developed world and what's going on in terms of the great inflation scare in emerging markets," he said.
Gold, seen as a safe haven in times of economic turmoil, has shot up as fears grow about debt crises on both sides of the Atlantic.
In recent years, its price has also been boosted by the increased buying power of India and China in particular.
As inflation is currently high in India, gold has become a more popular investment. India and China accounted for 58 percent of physical gold demand around the world in the first quarter of this year, according to the World Gold Council.
Another important factor in the rise of the price of gold has been the increase in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) buying physical gold.
Investments in ETFs backed by physical bullion rose to a record 2,156 tonnes on July 15, according to Barclays Capital.
Robbert Van Batenburg Head of Global Research, Louis Capital Markets told CNBC that the ETFs need for physical gold, stored in vaults, could have negative consequences.
"There has been a surge of ETFs to gold," he said. "At some point, this is going to put so much stress on the system and I fear regulatory zeal will be drawn towards these ETFs at some point."
M2 Capital Partners is sponsoring the GATA Gold Rush conference in London in August.
Menabde called for a gold stock market and said: "The gold physical market is more about the defensive nature of gold, but a gold stock market would also deliver dividends and surging share prices."
"We have seen the decoupling between the gold price and gold stocks, and at some point we will see the divergence between gold stocks price and physical price."
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