A recovery to the gold price, partly driven by Asia purchases, coupled with continued expectation of a Japanese boost to the stock market, were among the Asia-themed investment predictions issued at the start of this week by Coutts, the private bank.

Following recent sharp falls in the gold price, the yellow metal has recovered some lost ground in the past week, rising to a high of just over $1,482 per ounce before retreating slightly (as of 15:00 GMT on Monday, it fetched around $1,470 per ounce). Coutts’ investment managers expect the price to go on rising to between $1,500 and $1,550.

“Although investment selling of exchange traded funds has continued, jewellery demand and purchases of physical gold have supported the market,” the bank said in a note. “Jewellery demand from India and China increased sharply as the price fell. Anecdotally, in India, jewellery shops were mobbed as buyers bought early for weddings,” Coutts said.

In China, the bank pointed out that volumes on the Shanghai Gold exchange were more than six times the daily average of last year, with retail ales of gold on 15-16 April tripling in China (source: China Gold Association). The bank added that mints in the UK and US have seen “unprecedented demand”.

Elsewhere, the bank said it expected continued gains by the Japanese equity market due to the expansionary monetary policies of the Bank of Japan that have come into force since the national elections of late 2012. Since the start of January, the MSCI Japan Index of that country’s shares has delivered total returns (capital plus reinvested dividends) of 20.8 per cent, far outperforming the MSCI World Index of developed countries’ indices, of 8.9 per cent over the same period.

Less positively, recent data suggesting a cooling to China’s economic growth rates have weighted on sentiment, while Taiwan has seen weaker-than-expected industrial production figures. As a result, Coutts said that South Korea is one of its preferred choices for equities.