* Gold slips; ETF holdings tick lower
* IMF sells gold to Bangladesh
* Coming Up: France industrial output Jul; 0645 GMT
(Updates prices, adds quotes)
By Lewa Pardomuan
SINGAPORE, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Gold edged down on Friday,
heading for its first weekly decline in more than a month as
stock markets gained, but bargain hunting could cushion the
fall, with sentiment in the financial markets still fragile.
Gold hit a two-month high above $1,262 an ounce this week
on renewed global economic concerns before losing some gains to
profit taking and better-than-expected U.S. data on jobless
benefits. Silver was also off its highest since early 2008.
Spot gold <XAU=> fell $3.17 an ounce to $1,245.10 an ounce
by 0337 GMT, after falling as low as $1,242.20 on Thursday,
partly driven by technical selling from recent highs. Bullion,
which struck record around $1,264 in June, is headed for a
weekly drop of 0.2 percent, its first in six weeks.
"The trend still remains for a stronger gold and it
probably looks to test $1,275," said Darren Heathcote, head of
trading at Investec Australia in Sydney.
"But for the time being, there's a bit of safe-haven
unwinding going on overnight as risk is back on following
stronger U.S. data."
U.S. gold futures for December delivery <GCZ0> dropped $3.7
to $1,247.2 an ounce. The all-time high on the December futures
chart sits at $1,270.60 per ounce. []
The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday it sold 10
metric tonnes of gold to the central bank of Bangladesh on
Sept. 7, using Tuesday's market prices for the transaction.
[]
Asian stocks hit a four-month high on Friday as some
investors were inspired by positive U.S. and Japanese economic
data to pick out bargains but worries about the health of
European banks lingered. []
The euro, which was recently pummeled after traders seized
on resurging fears about Europe's fiscal health as an excuse to
sell the currency, was a touch softer on the U.S. dollar at
$1.2682. []
"People sell gold to buy stocks. I don't think sentiment is
bearish but it's a thin market, which gives gold no direction,"
said a dealer in Hong Kong. "There's a drop in ETF holdings but
it's less than a tonne."
The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR
Gold Trust <GLD.P>, said its holdings slipped to 1,293.531
tonnes by Sept 9 from 1,294.442 tonnes by Sept 3. The holdings
hit a record at 1,320.436 tonnes on June 29. []
The world's largest silver-backed exchange-traded fund, the
iShares Silver Trust <SLV>, said its holdings rose to 9,307.17
tonnes by Sept 9 from 9,276.73 tonnes on Sept 3.
[]
"Silver has been lagging behind gold for a while. So it
doesn't surprise me to see a bit of demand coming in," said
another dealer. "It's sort of a bit of a catch up and the
spread between gold and silver has been widening over the last
few weeks."
But physical dealers said the rise in silver prices to
above $20 this week was driven by speculative buying and not by
purchases from the industrial sector.
In the energy market, U.S. crude for October jumped to near
$75 after a leak forced Enbridge to shut down the biggest
pipeline supplying Canadian oil to refineries in the Midwest.
[]
Precious metals prices at 0037 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg
Turnover
Spot Gold 1245.10 -3.17 -0.25 13.64
Spot Silver 19.68 -0.11 -0.56 16.93
Spot Platinum 1550.00 1.72 +0.11 5.66
Spot Palladium 519.75 1.02 +0.20 28.18
TOCOM Gold 3382.00 -8.00 -0.24 3.77
22995
TOCOM Platinum 4223.00 23.00 +0.55 -3.61
6287
TOCOM Silver 53.60 -0.20 -0.37 3.68
298
TOCOM Palladium 1416.00 8.00 +0.57 21.55
93
Euro/Dollar 1.2653
Dollar/Yen 84.20
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Editing by Himani Sarkar)
(lewa.pardomuan@thomson reuters.com; +65 6870 3834; Reuters
Messaging: lewa.pardomuan.reuters.com@reuters.net))
