London has overtaken the traditional gold centres of India and China for shipments of bars from refineries in Switzerland, as the precious metal is sent to UK vaults to back a surge of buying from exchange traded funds.

The UK was the biggest destination for gold exports from Switzerland last month, Swiss customs data show, the most since September 2012. At 78.761 tonnes, more gold was dispatched to UK in April than to Hong Kong, India and China combined.