HSBC: Wealthy investors' gold holdings more than double

Although central banks' continued demand for gold has attracted a great deal of attention, they are not the only buyers in the market. A study by HSBC shows that wealthy investors with assets of at least $100,000 are also increasing their interest in gold.

On Thursday, one of the world's largest banks released its annual ‘Wealthy Investor Profile’ report. The report shows that wealthy investors have doubled their exposure to alternative assets such as gold. Meanwhile, investors have reduced their cash allocations by nearly 40%, particularly in Hong Kong, Mexico, the UK, and the US.

Further analysis of the data shows that wealthy investors have increased their gold exposure to 11%, up 6 percentage points from last year.

Holdings of private equity and credit, investment-grade real estate, and commodities (examples of other alternative assets) have also seen significant growth.

Willem Sels, Global Chief Investment Officer of HSBC Private Banking and Wealth Management, stated: ‘Diversification is one of the most effective ways to mitigate uncertainty, and these findings highlight that wealthy investors are building more diversified portfolios. Notably, the increase in alternative asset allocations reflects that wealthy investors are capitalising on new investment opportunities, particularly those in private markets.’

The report also highlighted investors' strong interest in gold. The survey revealed that half of respondents plan to hold gold over the next 12 months, double the current holding levels. Among these, 41% aim to purchase physical gold, while 28% are considering digital gold assets.

Gold has also gained favour among younger investors, with tokenised gold assets emerging as one of the most popular products this year.

In the first half of this year, the gold market experienced strong investment demand. Notably, after four consecutive years of outflows, funds flowing into gold ETFs saw the largest increase since 2020.

Some analysts expect investment demand to remain strong in the second half of the year, as the Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates by approximately 50 basis points.

In another report released on 1 July, HSBC's commodity analysts raised their average gold price forecast for 2025 to $3,215 per ounce, up from the previous estimate of $3,015 per ounce. Meanwhile, the average gold price for 2026 is expected to be around $3,125 per ounce.

HSBC stated in the report: ‘We expect gold prices to fluctuate significantly between $3,100 and $3,600 per ounce for the remainder of this year, with year-end prices of $3,175 per ounce in 2025 and $3,025 per ounce in 2026.’