Investment Insights

The benefits of certain portfolio hedges came into clear focus during the 2008-2009 financial crisis and did so again during the subsequent European sovereign debt crisis, the 2018 December stock market pullback and the most recent COVID-19 pandemic.

We believe that the recent volatility in the gold price was driven by massive liquidations across all assets and likely magnified by leveraged positions and rule-based trading.

Risk appetite amid high uncertainty
As we look ahead, we expect that the interplay between market risk and economic growth will drive gold demand in 2020

Re-optimising portfolio structures for lower future expected bond returns suggests investors should consider an additional 1%-1.5% gold exposure in diversified portfolios.

Why it is under-represented in commodity indices, under-invested and the potential impact on your portfolio

The first half of 2019 proved quite eventful for financial markets. Stocks retraced their Q4 2018 losses by the end of April only to pullback again in May.

The upcoming Fed meeting could provide clarity into the intermediate-term price behavior of gold. As uncertainty becomes more prevalent in the future behavior of the Federal Reserve, we examine whether there is any correlation with monetary policy uncertainty/behavior and gold prices.

Following the launch of the AAOIFI Shari’ah Standard on Gold in 2016, we have engaged with Islamic banks and financial institutions to develop the market for Shari’ah-compliant gold-backed products. As part of this, we conducted detailed qualitative and quantitative research across four predominantly Muslim markets: Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Malaysia.