Gold soared as European bank shares fell sharply Monday despite news that Switzerland's biggest bank UBS has agreed to buy Credit Suisse for $3.25 billion.
"Continued fallout from the banking sector has seen a flood of money to gold" on "its safe haven qualities", said Kinesis analyst Rupert Rowling.
The precious metal, seen as a safe store of value in times of turmoil, rose as high as $2,009.73 in early morning London deals.
That was the highest level since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine just over one year ago.
Gold later pared gains to stand at $1,995, which marked a gain of 0.3 percent from late Friday.
The metal has jumped by almost nine percent in value since the collapse of US regional lender Silicon Valley Bank ten days ago.
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