Jim Rogers may buy gold if price drops to $1,300

Jim Rogers, who predicted a commodity rally in 1999, said he may buy gold if a bear market deepens and prices fall to $1,300 an ounce or below

Bullion for immediate delivery tumbled to $1,321.95 on April 16, the lowest since January 2011, stoking a frenzy among coin and jewellery buyers from the US to India and Australia. Rogers, the chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings, hasn’t bought any bullion after the slump, he said in an interview. “If it goes to $1,300, I hope, I am smart enough to buy some,” he said in Singapore. “If it goes lower to $1,200, I hope to buy even more...”

“Gold was acting very unusually for the last 12 years and was overdue for a decline,” Rogers said in a separate interview on Bloomberg India TV. “Gold will make a proper bottom before resuming the bull market.”

Morgan Stanley said this week the peak in the price “has now passed,” while Goldman Sachs said it exited a bet on lower prices while saying bullion may fall even more. But billionaire John Paulson has stuck with his view that the metal will climb as a hedge against inflation. Demand for gold in India is double the level for this time of year, said Rajesh Mehta, chairman of Rajesh Exports.