A flight to the age-old safe haven of gold in times of market turbulence is appearing not just in spot gold, where prices came within a whisker of $740 a troy ounce last week – its highest nominal level in almost 28 years – but is also spreading to exchange traded funds, where investors have been showing an extraordinary appetite in recent weeks.

ETF Securities has seen money that is invested in its physically backed gold ETF increase 240 per cent in the past seven weeks. Its total assets under management in gold-backed exchange traded commodities exceeds $300m, while total assets under management invested in precious metals ETCs is above $500m.