* Euro gains, Greece worries fail to boost gold
* India rate hike continues to weigh on sentiment
* Coming up: U.S. existing home sales data on Tuesday
(Recasts, updates closing prices, market activity, changes
byline, previously LONDON)
By Frank Tang
NEW YORK, March 22 (Reuters) - Gold fell to its lowest in
more than three weeks on Monday, breaking through key
psychological support at $1,100 an ounce as flight-to-quality
demand faded with better risk appetite.
Investors are also nervous that a surprise 25-basis-point
rate hike in major bullion consumer India could herald global
monetary tightening, which would raise the opportunity cost of
holding noninterest-bearing gold.
Standard Chartered analyst Daniel Smith said a range of
issues was curbing demand for gold.
"As we saw these renewed worries about Greece coming to the
fore, and the hike in Indian rates, it made people a bit
concerned about the outlook (for gold)," he said.
Spot gold <XAU=> hit a low of $1,092.25 an ounce, the
weakest since Feb. 25. It was at $1,099.65 an ounce at 3:24
p.m. EDT (1924 GMT), against $1,106.55 late in New York on
Friday.
U.S. April gold futures <GCJ0> on the COMEX division of the
NYMEX settled down $8.10 at $1,099.50 an ounce.
On Friday, spot bullion's 1.7 percent decline was the
biggest one-day percentage loss since Feb. 4, when it had lost
4.2 percent.
The precious metal ended last week nearly unchanged. It had
risen earlier in the week in the face of a rising dollar,
boosted by safe-haven buying due to fiscal worries about Greece
and uncertainty about currencies.
But bullion retreated on Friday as the dollar surged
against the euro as India's interest rate hike created economic
uncertainty about a country whose gold consumption leads the
world.
Follow-through selling dragged gold market lower as the
metal remained weaker even as both the euro and oil turned
higher on broad gains in the equities markets.
GREECE WORRIES IGNORED
New development about a rescue plan for debt-laden Greece
failed to lift gold.
European leaders sent out conflicting signals at the
weekend over aid to Greece, with Germany's Angela Merkel urging
Athens to solve its debt problems alone and Italy's Silvio
Berlusconi strongly backing EU support. []
"There is still plenty of confusion about a bailout for
Greece," Credit Agricole said in a note. "Merkel dampened
expectations of a bailout by stating that it was not even on
the agenda for the summit."
Among other precious metals, silver <XAG=> was at $16.91
an ounce against $16.93, platinum <XPT=> was at $1,596 an ounce
against $1,604.50, while palladium <XPD=> was the biggest
decliner, slipping to $456.50 against $467.
Both platinum and palladium are consolidating after
posting hefty gains at the beginning of the month after car
sales data from the key U.S. and Chinese markets cheered
investors. The metals are primarily used in autocatalysts.
Close Change Pct 2009 YTD
Chg Close % Chg
US gold <GCJ0> 1099.50 -8.1 -0.7 1096.20 0.3
US silver <SIK0> 16.935 -0.097 -0.6 16.845 0.5
US platinum <PLJ0> 1601.30 -7.30 -0.5 1471.00 8.9
US palladium <PAM0> 460.60 -7.90 -1.7 408.85 12.7
Prices at 3:37 p.m. EDT (1937 GMT)
Gold <XAU=> 1100.25 -6.30 -0.6 1096.35 0.4
Silver <XAG=> 16.91 -0.02 -0.1 16.84 0.4
Platinum <XPT=> 1594.00 -10.50 -0.7 1465.50 8.8
Palladium <XPD=> 456.50 -10.500 -2.2 405.50 12.6
Gold Fix <XAUFIX=> 1097.25 -7.00 -0.6 1104 -0.6
Silver Fix <XAGFIX=> 16.78 -53.00 -3.1 16.99 -1.2
Platinum Fix <XPTFIX=> 1582.00 1.00 0.1 1466 7.9
Palladium Fix<XPDFIX=> 454.00 4.00 0.9 402 12.9
(Additional reporting Jan Harvey in London; Editing by Lisa
Shumaker)
