* Gold falls on profit taking, hovers below $1,160
* Light buying by investors cushions the fall
* Coming Up: March US housing starts/build permits; 1230
GMT
(Updates prices)
By Lewa Pardomuan
SINGAPORE, April 16 (Reuters) - Gold dropped on Friday as
speculators booked profits from this week's rally to a
four-month high, but worries about Greece's debt crisis could
keep the metal's safe haven appeal intact and help it defy
pressure from a rising U.S. dollar.
Bullion was hovering above the closely-watched 14-, 50- and
100-day moving averages, with a dip in prices likely to ignite
physical buying and take it back to a peak near $1,170 an ounce
hit on Monday.
Spot gold <XAU=> was at $1,154.95 an ounce by 0539 GMT,
down $3.00 from New York's notional close on Thursday, when it
briefly crossed the $1,160 level. It hit an intraday high of
$1,159.45 on Friday on light investor buying.
"I think we're in a little bit of a consolidation period at
the moment. But I think overall, the signs are still good for
gold," said Darren Heathcote, head of trading at Investec
Australia in Sydney.
"We're waiting for either further news on the Greece
situation to come out, which obviously caused a little bit of
movement into gold yesterday. At the same time, the market is
poised to hear more on the data front to suggest where we are
in terms of economic recovery."
Gold rallied to $1,168.70 on Monday, its strongest since
Dec. 4 after a downgrade of Greece's debt renewed fears over
the euro zone's financial stability. Gold struck a record above
$1,200 in December.
COMEX June gold <GCM0> fell $5.2 an ounce to $1,155.1 after
a volatile trade the previous day.
For technicals on gold, click on []
The euro dipped on Friday, under pressure from scepticism
about Greece servicing its debt, while the yen surged as
caution about a possible revaluation by China led yen sellers
to close short positions ahead of the weekend. []
Euro-priced gold <XAUEUR=R> and sterling-priced gold
<XAUGBP=R> were within sight of their recent records.
The euro has lost more than 5 percent against the U.S. dollar
since the start of the year as investors sold the single
currency in droves on worries that Greece would default on its
debt obligations.
"Stronger Asian currencies have led to light buying and I
would say the selling is actually not that much. I think what's
been happening is that people will buy gold and sell stocks or
vice versa," said a bullion dealer in Hong Kong.
"Thailand may be selling gold when the market reopens next
week after the holiday. The baht is weakening because of the
internal problems there."
Thai anti-government protest leaders staged a dramatic
escape from police on Friday after the authorities vowed to
crack down on what they termed "terrorists" ahead of a planned
speech by the prime minister. []
The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR
Gold Trust <GLD>, said its holdings stood at a record of
1,141.041 tonnes as of April 15, unchanged from the previous
business day. []
Precious metals prices at 0539 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg
Turnover
Spot Gold 1154.95 -3.00 -0.26 5.41
Spot Silver 18.29 -0.08 -0.44 8.67
Spot Platinum 1717.50 0.00 +0.00 17.08
Spot Palladium 534.50 -7.50 -1.38 31.81
TOCOM Gold 3452.00 -24.00 -0.69 5.92
44153
TOCOM Platinum 5117.00 -31.00 -0.60 16.80
14314
TOCOM Silver 54.90 -0.70 -1.26 6.19
633
TOCOM Palladium 1599.00 -22.00 -1.36 37.25
1198
Euro/Dollar 1.3546
Dollar/Yen 92.69
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Editing by Michael Urquhart)
