Prices of safe haven yellow metal gold rose to $1,598.55 an ounce, or as much as 0.3 per cent, at 11:25 a.m. in Singapore on increased from China even as the country continued to produce more gold within its confines.

"The re-emergence of physical buyers in China following the Lunar New Year celebrations was an encouraging sign," Howard Wen, an HSBC Securities analyst, wrote in a note.

China's markets were closed in the week of Feb. 11.

Chinese people long held the tradition that buying gold is a far more worthy investment than buying stocks or any other form of investment. This tradition is being made sure that it passes from every Chinese family generation.

Current debacle in Italy of a potentially divided parliament was likewise seen a triggering factor to the safe-haven bullion buying, Mr Wen added.

But experts warned people, not only the Chinese, should refrain from buying and accumulating more gold.

"People should stop buying gold now, because the metal's technical chart is very negative. Also, the momentum behind the gold surge since 2008 was quantitative easing, and now there is a very strong expectation that the easing will come to an end," Deng Wenyi, from Chengdu-based Huaxi Securities, told the Global Times Sunday.

On Monday, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said the country, a global consumer of the yellow metal, increased its gold output to 403 tonnes in 2012, up by 11.66 per cent over a year ago.

Of the total, 341.8 tonnes were produced by gold mines, while the remaining 61.3 tonnes were byproducts of nonferrous metal smelting, the ministry said.

For the sixth consecutive year, China has emerged as the world's top producer of the safe haven yellow metal gold. It maintains around 1,054 tonnes of gold reserves.

Its consumption of the yellow metal in 2012 jumped 9.35 per cent to 832.18 metric tonnes.