China ends gold hoard mystery to top Russia's holdings

Singapore

CHINA has ended six years of mystery over how much gold it's hoarding, revealing a 57 per cent jump in reserves and overtaking Russia to become the country with the fifth-largest stash of the metal.

"The market has been speculating on the size of China's gold reserves for years and the central bank has always been reticent until now," Fu Peng, a portfolio manager at Lianzhan Global Macro Fund Management Co, said by phone from Beijing last Friday.

China boosted bullion assets to 53.31 million troy ounces, or about 1,658 tonnes, the People's Bank of China said in a statement last Friday. That's up from 1,054 tonnes in 2009, when it last updated the figures. The US has the biggest reserves at 8,133.5 tonne…