Commodities

Gold hit a further record high yesterday afternoon as Ben Bernanke said the Federal Reserve was prepared for QE3 while increasing risk of contagion in the eurozone worried investors.

Central banks have pulled 635 tonnes of gold from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in the past year, the largest withdrawal in more than a decade, the FT reports.

Anthony Bolton, veteran investor and manager of Fidelity's £635m China Special Situations investment trust, has tipped the long-running bull market in gold to continue amid ongoing economic woes across the globe.

The oil price fell by $6 after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said it would make available an extra 60m barrels.

Clive Burstow, a former analyst at Cazenove, has rejoined the group to work on its Global Resources fund.

Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig at the centre of last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill, has blamed BP, as operator of the well, for decisions it said led to the fatal disaster.

Nathaniel Rothschild, the financier, has confirmed his position as one of the most powerful brokers in the country after smashing the fund raising target for his new venture.

Jim O'Neill, the chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, is eyeing China and Russia as the most attractive BRIC countries while shunning "expensive" India.

Newton's Asian Income manager Jason Pidcock is favouring commodity-related stocks, a sector normally avoided by income seekers in the UK.

JP Morgan has launched a sterling hedged share class for its Diversified Commodities fund run by it alternatives arm, Highbridge Capital Management.