A quarter of UK investors believe gold is a better investment prospect than bonds or equities in 2019, according to data from Legg Mason.
The company surveyed 16,000 investors around the world, with the UK portion of the data showing a quarter look on gold as a potential "safe haven" for what they predicted would be a difficult year for many asset classes.
Investors who had allocated to gold at the start of the year saw its price fall by 5 per cent but it is in positive territory since market turmoil became acute at the start of October.
Meanwhile 19 per cent of UK investors identified cash as their favourite asset class, which represented an increase of 5 per cent on the number who had that view a year ago.
Luca Paolini, chief strategist at Pictet Asset Management said expected 2019 to be a tough year for most asset classes as US interest rates continued to rise.
David Marchant, chief investment officer at Canada Life Investments did not regard gold as an asset class and did not consider it for any role in portfolios with which he is associated.
He said: "The value of gold is based on the price the next person will pay for it, whereas an equity or a bond has an intrinsic value and can be priced based on the future income it can generate."
Benjamin Benson, investment analyst at discretionary fund management business GDIM, said: "We don’t tend to use gold in model portfolios, only for individual clients who want exposure. However, there might be scope to do so in the near future, as we are considering such risk off/non-correlating assets in a higher volatility world."
david.thorpe@ft.com
