* Silver hit by profit taking, falls about 10 pct
* Market thin with many Asian centres closed for holidays
* Tokyo's Nikkei up more than 1 pct, Aussie rises above
$1.1000
By Ian Chua
SYDNEY, May 2 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks rose on Monday as
investors cheered gains on Wall Street, but commodity prices
suffered a bout of profit taking with silver sliding about 10
percent.
Financial markets in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia
and Thailand are all shut on Monday for public holidays, a
factor seen contributing to thin trading conditions that could
exaggerate price action.
Of the few markets in the region that are open, Japan's
Nikkei average rose 1.1 percent, South Korea's KOSPI
put on 0.9 percent, but Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index
slipped 0.5 percent.
MSCI's gauge of Asian stocks excluding Japan
climbed 0.2 percent, recovering from Friday's 0.4 percent
decline.
The dollar, however, stayed under pressure and fell to a
one-month low against the yen at 80.97 . Analysts said
this could curb further gains in the Nikkei.
"A stronger yen may put cap on exporters, so profit-taking
may kick in around 9,950," said Kazuhiro Takahashi, general
manager at Daiwa Securities of the Nikkei average.
Silver skidded about 10 percent to a low of $42.58 ,
well off a record high of $49.51 set on Thursday. Gold fell to
$1,543.50 from an all-time high of $1,575.79.
The move came after data last Friday showed speculators had
scaled back their bullish bets in COMEX silver futures and
options to the lowest level since early February. It also
followed news last week the CME had raised margins on Comex 5000
silver <0#SI:>.
"The reduction in COMEX length before the weekend, margin
increase and holidays in large parts of Asia and Europe set the
stage for a move like this," said Natalie Robertson, analyst at
ANZ in Melbourne.
DOLLAR DOLDRUMS
With the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates near zero,
the dollar saw little respite. The dollar index , which
measures its performance against a basket of major currencies,
plumbed a fresh three-year low at 72.813.
The euro, which hit a 16-month high around $1.4881
last week, last traded at $1.4845, while the high-flying
Australian dollar raced to $1.1011 for the first time
since early 1982.
With both the Fed and Bank of Japan maintaining ultra-loose
monetary policies, investors have been seeking higher yielding
assets in many fast-growing emerging markets in Asia.
This has prompted many Asian authorities to tighten policy
as inflationary pressure grows. Data on Sunday showed China's
policy actions to rein in prices appeared to be taking effect,
with manufacturing growth slowing in April. []
(Additional reporting by Ayai Tomisawa in Tokyo and Nick
Trevethan and Alejandro Barbajosa in Singapore; Editing by
Andrew Marshall)
