Asia’s super wealthy look to physical gold trade amid global economic uncertainty

The boom in gold prices isn’t just pushing the wealthy to bolster their gold ETFs and mining stocks, it’s also sparking a revival of the physical gold trade. The world’s rich, especially in Asia, are now actively participating in the physical gold trade themselves, “financing, shipping and flipping bullion like traders,” Bloomberg reports.

Firms and even families that had previously had no physical and direct contact with gold are now sourcing bullion themselves — often from little regulated markets in Africa — transporting it back to Asia and refining it, before selling it on with higher prices.

Closer to home, the very wealthy in the UAE are lending gold to local jewelers, enabling them to add on extra returns for the appreciating assets, the outlets cites two precious metals traders as saying. Discounted bars in Dubai are also being brought to be sold for higher prices in Asia to meet high demand — and with it high prices.

Worldwide, wealthy investors have increased their exposure to gold in 2025 by some 120%, according to HSBC’s Affluent Investor Snapshot 2025 report (pdf). The move towards gold notched the largest shift of investors’ mean asset allocations surveyed by the lender, followed by a move towards alternative assets by 100%. According to the survey, gold now makes up 11% of wealthy investors’ assets on average.

And for wealthy investors who don’t yet own gold, many of them want to. Half of the investors surveyed by the HSBC said they plan to add gold to their portfolios in the next 12 months, which is double the current level. Of these, 41% are looking to own physical gold, while 28% plan to own digital gold.

The uptick in appetite for gold isn’t surprising, given the precious metal has increased in value some 41.0% in the last 12 months, to sell for USD 3.4k per ounce. Driving demand — and arguably pushing gold’s appeal beyond a safe haven asset to a speculative investment — is geopolitical and economic uncertainty coupled with an unpredictable USD.

In recent days, investors rushed to buy up gold, pushing the price of the precious metal to new highs after reports emerged alleging that the US would soon impose tariffs on imported bullion. But some calm returned to the market after Trump clarified on Monday in a Truth Social post that gold would not be tariffed under incoming trade changes.

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asian markets are in the green in early trading today, as markets continue to digest the extension of the US-China trade truce. Japan’s Nikkei is leading gains, up 1.3%, with the Hang Seng and Kospi trailing behind, looking at gains of 1.0% and 0.5%, respectively.

THE CLOSING BELL: TADAWUL-

The TASI fell 0.2% yesterday on turnover of SAR 4.1 bn. The index is down 10.5% YTD.

In the green: Red Sea (+10.0%), Baan (+5.0%) and Astra Industrial (+4.7%).

In the red: Chemanol (-9.9%), Cenomi Retail (-4.9%) and Jahez (-4.7%).

THE CLOSING BELL: NOMU-

The NomuC fell 0.4% yesterday on turnover of SAR 34.8 mn. The index is down 16.9% YTD.

In the green: Future Care (+15.1%), Paper Home (+10.0%) and Alqemam (+5.7%).

In the red: Rawasi (-9.3%), Mayar (-7.1%) and Lana (-6.9%).

CORPORATE ACTIONS-

Al Babtain’s board greenlights subsidiary capital raise: Al Babtain Power andTelecommunication ’s board approved raising the capital of its wholly owned subsidiary Al Babtain LeBlanc Communication Systems to SAR 30 mn from SAR 10 mn, it said in a disclosure to Tadawul on Monday. The capital hike will take place by converting part of the current account balance owed by the parent company.

Qiyam Holding shifts 8 mn Al Modawat shares: Al Modawat Specialized Medical ’s major shareholder Qiyam Holding — which owns 60.4% of the company — plans to transfer about 8 mn of its shares to investment portfolios owned by its partners as part of an internal restructuring, it said in a disclosure to Tadawul yesterday.