* Gold steadies; Thailand buys on dips
* For the technicals on gold; click [
]* Coming Up; U.S. Producer prices mm May; 1230 GMT (Updates prices, adds quotes)
By Lewa Pardomuan
SINGAPORE, June 16 (Reuters) - Gold held steady on Wednesday after having risen 1 percent the previous day on worries that debt problems in Europe were worsening, although rising stock markets could still spur a shift to riskier assets.
The physical sector saw buying from jewellers and speculators in Thailand, while top consumer India was chasing gold bars whenever there was a drop in prices, dealers said.
Spot gold <XAU=> was at $1,232.65 an ounce by 0056 GMT, steady with New York's notional close on Tuesday, when investors poured money into the metal following a sovereign ratings downgrade of Greece.
Gold, which hit a lifetime high of $1,251.20 last week, was likely to consolidate within a wide range of $1,220 to $1,250 before charging higher.
For a graphic of the gold technical outlook, click: http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/WT_20101606090202.jpg "I think the upside for gold is still very strong in terms of safe haven flows," said Wong Eng Soon, investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.
"I would think there seems to be a preference for large funds to be long on volatility, take on more downside protection and be less correlated with wider markets. This suggests risk aversion is still prevalent."
Holdings in the world's largest gold ETF have been unchanged at record levels in the last four sessions, which suggested that investors were keen to hold on to bullion because of lingering concerns about the euro zone's financial sector.
U.S. gold futures for August delivery <GCQ0> were hardly moved at $1,233.3 an ounce after ending up nearly $10 on Wednesday.
Holdings in the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust <GLD.P>, were unchanged at a record high of 1,306.137 tonnes. [
]"Surprisingly we've seen some physical buying from Thailand. That's the highlight of the day. I think consumers will continue to buy gold on dips," said a physical dealer in Singapore.
"People are still confident on gold more than anything."
The euro steadied near two-week highs on Wednesday, while demand for high-yielding currencies was underpinned by a general improvement in risk taking as investors set aside concerns about the euro zone's financial sector for the moment to buy riskier assets. [
]Japan's Nikkei average rose more than 1 percent on Wednesday to top 10,000 for the first time in a month, after successful debt sales by some of the weakest euro-zone members boosted the euro and Wall Street. [
] [ ] Precious metals prices at 0248 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover Spot Gold 1232.65 0.20 +0.02 12.50 Spot Silver 18.57 0.08 +0.43 10.34 Spot Platinum 1580.25 7.75 +0.49 7.72 Spot Palladium 470.25 0.75 +0.16 15.97 TOCOM Gold 3636.00 39.00 +1.08 11.57 19056 TOCOM Platinum 4689.00 101.00 +2.20 7.03 12047 TOCOM Silver 55.20 1.10 +2.03 6.77 378 TOCOM Palladium 1395.00 49.00 +3.64 19.74 340 Euro/Dollar 1.2312 Dollar/Yen 91.51 TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce. (Editing by Clarence Fernandez)