The IMF projected global growth to fall to -3% in 2020, a downgrade of 6.3 percentage points from January, "a major revision over a very short period".

The projection also assumed the COVID-19 pandemic and required containment would peak in the second quarter for most countries and recede in the second half of the year.

Most key markets closed higher yesterday, with the S&P 500 up 3.06% and the S&P/ASX200 up 1.9%, with both now having technically entered bull markets, having regained more than 20% since March's lows.

The FTSE 100 managed to create a fresh one-month high yesterday morning, IG senior market analyst Joshua Mahony said, but it ended up closing down 0.88%.

Precious metals producers Polymetal International (LSE: POLY) and Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) enjoyed gains of 6.56% and 4.9% respectively.

The gold price is around a seven-year high although there is a gap between the Comex gold futures price of US$1,750 an ounce and the spot price of $1,726/oz.

Metals and mining stocks were collectively higher in Toronto, where Katanga Mining (TSX: KAT) rose 30.7% - or C2c to close at 8.5c, still near a 52-week low of 5c reached earlier this month.