gulfnews : Supposedly safe gold shows more bounce per ounce

Last week was tough for investors in precious metals, but few can have felt the pain as much as the divers at Odyssey Marine. After the elation of finding a shipwreck off the coast of Ireland with 7 million ounces of silver aboard, the US treasure-hunting company saw the value of its hoard plunge $28 million (Dh102.8 million) in less than an hour last Monday morning.

For metals championed by their proponents as a "store of value" immune to the vagaries of governments and their printing presses, gold and silver — known as "the poor man's gold" — have, to say the least, proved disappointing.

Prices had been falling since gold hit its high of $1,920 per troy ounce three weeks ago. But the gentle drop turned into a plunge at the end of last week, and both metals fell off a cliff last Monday, when gold reached a low of $1,534 an ounce, down 20 per cent from its peak. Silver fell 41 per cent from its August high.

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