Gold investing retreats further as interest-rate uncertainty hits prices

Tue Aug 04 2026

Gold sentiment among UK investors retreated from June’s rebound last month, new data from world-leading marketplace BullionVault shows today, as uncertainty over interest rates continues to pressure the price of precious metals.

Measuring the balance of gold buyers versus sellers since 2010, the UK Gold Investor Index eased back as the price of bullion slowed the pace of its sharpest fall since the crash of spring 2013. “While gold tends to thrive on uncertainty, it’s really not enjoying the current uncertainty over US Fed or Bank of England interest rates,” says BullionVault director of research Adrian Ash.

“Were the gold crash and bear market of the mid-2010s to prove any guide, gold prices would only find their floor when the warnings of tighter monetary policy become fact. But the geopolitical backdrop is far more fraught today, and central bank gold buying is clearly supporting the market, seizing on the drop in prices.”      Now caring for more than £5.8 billion in securely-stored precious metals for over 130,000 users from 175 countries, BullionVault saw the number of UK private investors buying gold in July drop 19.8% from June’s count to the fewest since August last year.

The number of investors selling gold also fell again, down by 19.4% to a 13-month low. Together, that cut the UK Gold Investor Index by 1.2 points to 55.0, half-a-point above July 2025’s reading and 0.2 points above the data series’ long-term average. The Gold Investor Index would read 50.0 if the number of buyers exactly matched the number of sellers across the month. BullionVault’s UK series set a post-pandemic high of 61.4 this March.

Says Ash: “Aside from the current uncertainty over interest rates, gold prices typically trade softer mid-year. The past few months’ crash and volatility mean that longer-term investors are likely to welcome a stint in the summer doldrums just as much as precious metals traders will.”

Priced in British Pounds, gold bullion finished July at £3003 per troy ounce, down 1.4% from June with its cheapest month-end price since last September. The price of gold in UK Pounds has now dropped for 5 months running, the longest stretch since March-July 1985. New UK interest in precious metals meanwhile retreated once more, down 22.2% from June’s count of new BullionVault account openings to the fewest since January 2025. That still marked the 5th strongest July for first-time UK precious metals investors in the West London fintech’s two decades of operation.

By weight, BullionVault users as a group sold 75 kilograms more gold than they bought last month, taking the total quantity now owned by the West London fintech’s clients down 0.2% to a 3-month low of 43.5 tonnes.

Source: https://ifamagazine.com