New Delhi, March 31 -- Conventionally, investors want the assets they hold to make them money-and not just owing to rising valuations. Bonds spit out coupons; stocks offer dividends. Gold is different. It emanates no cashflows. Its smattering of real-world uses, in jewellery-making or electronics, hardly justifies its hefty presence in many portfolios.

The best reason to hold gold is as insurance against a blow-up, real or metaphorical. The hope is that millennia of human fascination with the stuff mean its value will never fall to nothing. The metal has also long had the helpful property of getting more valuable when other assets are in trouble.

The unprecedented energy shock caused by the American-Israeli war against Iran should be ex...