Prices up on great day for gold

Gold prices rose dramatically yesterday (September 4th), as US investors and gold jewelery wholesalers returned from Monday's Labor Day holiday.

Tuesday's rises saw trading this morning (September 5th) open at above $680 per ounce, while enthused investors saw a $9.60 increase in December gold prices to $691.50 an ounce over the course of the day.

Firm energy prices were said by Reuters to be motivating the rise of gold, with other markets for the precious metal tightly following the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Among these, the Tokyo Commodity Exchange saw gold futures rising on the back of brighter technicals.

Perhaps the biggest winners from the surge in the price of gold were not, however, investors looking to buy gold, but mining companies enjoying a boost to their share prices.

Among mining companies, the biggest increases fell to Anglo-Gold Ashanti, its shares rising by 3.2 per cent, and Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold mining company, gaining 2.8 per cent in share value.