Gold hovers at three-month lows as commodities slump

Japan’s Nikkei was down 0.9 per cent, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 1.7 per cent as shares in mining and energy companies tumbled. Both benchmarks had partially recovered from earlier lows.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 1.9 per cent lower, while China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.6 per cent. The tech-focused Shenzhen Composite was 1.6 per cent lower, ending a seven-day winning streak, which was the index’s longest since late May.

Investors attention was toward commodity markets, which slumped below key levels on Thursday. Brent crude closed below $45 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate finished below $42 as Opec warned the oil glut had grown even bigger than during the financial crisis. In Friday trade, the oil benchmarks were 0.1 per cent higher at $44.09 and down 0.5 per cent at $41.54, respectively.

Copper on the London Metal Exchange suffered its biggest one-day drop since September 22. In intra-day trade, it hit a low of $4,800 a tonne, the lowest level since July 2009.

Gold slipped too, and was down for a fourth straight session on Friday with a 0.2 per cent drop to $1,083.29 an ounce.

China loan data did little to instil confidence, as new loans slumped to Rmb514bn ($80.6bn) in October from Y1.05tn in September.

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