LONDON: Palladium jumped over 7% on Monday as fresh Western sanctions on Russia exacerbated supply concerns for the auto-catalyst, while gold firmed en route to its best month in nine on strong safe-haven demand due to the Ukraine crisis.

Palladium gained 5.4% to $2,483.19 by 1015 GMT, having scaled a session high of $2,551.50, and was set for a third consecutive monthly rise.

Russia’s Nornickel is the world’s largest supplier of palladium, used by automakers for catalytic converters.

“There’s just real concern here that shipping channels are just going to get disrupted because of this Ukraine situation,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.

Russia’s central bank on Monday moved to shield the economy from unprecedented Western sanctions as its invasion of Ukraine continued, bolstering other measures including an assurance it would resume buying gold in the domestic market.

Goldman Sachs expects a price rally in commodities that Russia is a major producer of, as the West stepped up political and economic restrictions on Moscow.

Spot gold rose 0.7% to $1,900.80 per ounce, after gaining as much as 2.2% earlier in the session. US gold futures advanced 0.7% to $1,901.60.

Gold has risen about 6% so far in February in what would be its best monthly gain since May 2021, after prices soared to an 18-month high of $1,973.96 last week.

“As long as the Ukraine crisis persists, gold prices should have little trouble staying above $1,900, with a strong bias for further strides towards $2,000 if this geopolitical crisis further escalates,” Han Tan, chief market analyst at Exinity said.

“Gold bulls have fed off Europe’s worst security crisis in decades, turning the precious metal into the top-performing safe-haven.”

Spot silver rose 0.5% to $24.32 per ounce and platinum was up 0.4% to $1,058.84, with both poised for monthly gains.