Gold soars to three-month highs on Syria

- Gold extended gains to a fifth straight session on Wednesday and climbed over 1% to its highest in more than three months, buoyed by safe-haven buying due to geopolitical tensions in .

Silver tracked gold higher, gaining more than 2% to trade at its highest in more than four months.

The and its allies geared up for a probable military strike against that could come within days and would be the most aggressive action by Western powers in the Middle Eastern nation's two-and-a-half-year civil war.

Stock markets in the and fell on the developments, while oil prices hit six-month highs.

"When things get uncertain you will always see a bigger interest in gold," said , global head of commodities research at Standard Chartered Bank in .

Spot gold climbed to $1 431.09 an ounce by 08:21. The metal hit $1 433.31 earlier in the session, its highest since May 14.

Spot silver rose 2.3% to $25.02.

"We may be seeing a new trading paradigm setting in the next few days, one whereby investors sour on stocks and file back into commodities, with oil and gold likely being the two favourites in the group," INTL FCStone analyst wrote in a note.

Gold has lost about 15% of its value this year as investors shifted to higher-yielding equities on the back of strengthening US economic data.

However, the metal has recovered about $240 an ounce, or more than 20%, since hitting a near three-year low of $1 180.71 in late June.

Inflows into SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, have aided in boosting market sentiment. Holdings are near four-year lows but have risen in the last two weeks.

Central-bank buying

Data from the on Tuesday showed that central banks continued to add to their gold reserves.

added the most by buying 22.5 tonnes of gold in July, while 's holdings topped 1 000 tonnes.

"Emerging market central banks will continue to accumulate gold as an important cornerstone to reserves, this is one of the factors that will continue to underpin gold demand in coming years," ANZ analysts said.