Global markets trade weak

World share markets made a soft start to 2014 on Thursday in the wake of disappointing data on Chinese manufacturing, while investors showed renewed appetite for commodities and the dollar as the new year got underway.

Gold grabbed the limelight with a 1.5 per cent jump to $1,220 an ounce, recouping just a little of the losses that made last year its worst in three decades.

The buying spilled over into silver and copper, with dealers talking of demand from Chinese traders looking to pick up commodities on the cheap.

Figures from the Euro zone set a positive early tone, as they showed manufacturing growing at the fastest rate since mid-2011 in December on brisk business in Germany and Italy, though a moribund French economy continued to weigh. European stocks had started the year at a 5-1/2 year high, but an initial push higher proved short-lived despite the upbeat data as London's FTSE, Paris's CAC 40 and Frankfurt's Dax dropped 0.5, 0.6 and 0.5 per cent, respectively.