After a precious metals shop in Hong Kong's central business district announced that hundreds of silver bars had sold out for the day on Wednesday, murmurs of disappointment rippled through a waiting queue. Retiree Ken Wong, 65, began queueing at the precious metals shop Lee Cheong at around 5 am and managed to buy five bars. He told AFP that buying silver offered him the chance to invest in a safe-haven asset quickly on the rise, whereas gold has become "too expensive". Pakistani Meran Jawad waited in line outside the trader shop since around 6 am to purchase silver bars, which were in limited supply. Geopolitical tensions and rising inflation have driven the surge in precious metals investments, Samuel Tse, an economist at DBS Bank, told AFP.