Bullion for immediate delivery rallied as much as 1.3 percent to $1,343.62 an ounce and traded at $1,341.81 at 8:31 a.m. in Singapore. Prices advanced 6.6 percent last month after a 3.2 percent gain in January, and reached a 17-week high of $1,345.46 on Feb. 26. Holdings in ETPs expanded 0.4 percent in February after contracting last year for the first time since the first product was introduced in 2003.

Bullion is the biggest gainer in 2014 after coffee and lean hogs on the Standard & Poor’s GSCI Index of 24 commodities as unrest in Ukraine and a slowdown in China hurt emerging-market assets and boosted demand for a store of value. Gold rallied from a 28 percent drop in 2013 as U.S. economic data from factory output to retail sales missed estimates just as the Federal Reserve started to scale back asset purchases.

“In times of military conflict, you tend to get an initial knee-jerk reaction, which is what this seems like,” Joel Crane, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, said by phone from Melbourne.

Ukraine mobilized army reserves yesterday and called for foreign observers in Crimea after Russia seized control of the Black Sea region. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is traveling to Ukraine today, while European Union foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting.

Gold for April delivery rose as much as 1.4 percent to $1,339.70 an ounce on the Comex, and was at $1,339.30. The net-long position on gold climbed 25 percent to 113,911 futures and options in the week to Feb. 25, the highest since December 2012, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show.

Silver advanced 1.3 percent to $21.4998 an ounce, after climbing 11 percent in February, the first monthly gain since October. Platinum rose added as much as 0.8 percent to $1,457.25 an ounce, the highest since Jan. 24, and was at $1,456.25. Palladium increased as much as 0.8 percent to $748.35 an ounce, also the highest price since Jan. 24, and traded at $748.05.

To contact the reporter on this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-03/gold-rallies-as-russian-seizure-of-crimea-increases-haven-demand.html

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