Gold, oil jump as Ukraine mobilises for war; stocks fall

Gold prices rose more than 1 per cent, while Brent and US crude oil rallied to multi-month highs on Monday on escalating geopolitical tensions as Ukraine mobilised for war after Russia bloodlessly seized Crimea, an isolated Black Sea peninsula where Moscow has a naval base. However, riskier assets such as stocks fell across the globe. The BSE Sensex fell 0.06 per cent while broader Nifty was down 0.13 per cent as of 10.35 a.m., posting smaller declines than in the rest of the region. Japan's Nikkei average traded 1.4 per cent lower. Commodity prices tend to rise in conflict situations, so the current rally in gold and crude prices is no different, analysts said. Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings told NDTV that war is not good for any asset except commodity prices. "If we have a war, commodity prices will go up, but I expect things to cool down," he added. Russia is the world's biggest oil producer and Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said Moscow's move to use military force was a "declaration of war". Putin secured permission from his parliament on Saturday to use military force to protect Russian citizens in Ukraine and told US President Barack Obama he had the right to defend Russian interests and nationals, spurning Western pleas not to intervene. Brent crude hit a session peak of $111.24 per barrel, its highest since January 2. Cash and US gold futures hit an intraday high around $1,345 an ounce. "I think there's short-term support for gold because of the turmoil. I am looking to find out whether it will break a previous high of $1,361.60 touched in October last year," said Joyce Liu, investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore. In India, the most actively traded gold contract was up 1 per cent atRs. 30,618 per 10 gram. Source :   http://profit.ndtv.com/news/market/article-gold-oil-jump-as-ukraine-mobilises-for-war-stocks-fall-381997