Value of rare whisky rockets in Knight Frank's lucrative assets index

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Rare whisky was the most lucrative investment tracked in a new luxury asset index, rising 40 percent in value in 2018 versus a 12 percent gain in collectors' coins, which was runner-up, index compiler Knight Frank said on Wednesday.

The Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index included rare whisky for the first time among alternative assets. In the 10 years to 2018, the value of rare whisky has surged almost 600 percent.

That compares with a fall of 12 percent in Britain's main FTSE share index in 2018.

The booming price of the spirit most closely associated with Scotland partly reflects surging Asian demand and less stellar growth in alternative assets amid what Knight Frank called "a return to a genuine collector-driven market".

Behind rare whisky came wine and art, whose values increased 9 percent apiece. Art was the top-performing asset class in 2017.

Last October, a 60-year-old The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 was auctioned for a record 848,750 pounds.

(Reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary; editing by Stephen Addison)