Precious metals regain their lustre

After a weak start to the year, precious metals prices surged last month, bolstered by a weaker US dollar. Gold and silver continued to benefit from safe-haven demand as global equity prices tumbled, but the rally seems to have lost steam as financial markets stabilised. From a technical point of view, the outlook for precious metals significantly improved. With the exception of gold, however, sentiment in the ETF market remained subdued. In contrast, net long positioning in the futures markets increased across the whole sector.