* Gold slips; ETF holdings tick lower
* IMF sells gold to Bangladesh
* Coming Up: France industrial output Jul; 0645 GMT
(Updates prices)
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 $1.27 an ounce to $1,247.00 an ounce
by 0559 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 $2.1
to $1,248.8 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
tonnes of gold to the central bank of Bangladesh this week, its
first sale after a 10-month hiatus, as a volatile U.S. currency
draws holders to bullion. []
The gold market is sensitive to buying by Asian central
banks, Purchases by India, Mauritious and Sri Lanks helped
boost prices earlier this year, while speculation China was in
the market for IMF gold in February, ultimately unfounded, sent
prices higher by 1 percent.
"If China were to move on to the open market, they wouldn't
want to buy 299 tonnes, they'd need to buy 2,000 tonnes to
diversify, and that would create so much buying pressure it
would wreck the market," Mark Pervan, senior analyst at ANZ
said.
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. [] []
"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.
[]
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 0559 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg
Turnover
Spot Gold 1247.00 -1.27 -0.10 13.81
Spot Silver 19.76 -0.03 -0.15 17.41
Spot Platinum 1548.83 0.55 +0.04 5.58
Spot Palladium 519.70 0.97 +0.19 28.16
TOCOM Gold 3373.00 -17.00 -0.50 3.50
31418
TOCOM Platinum 4211.00 11.00 +0.26 -3.88
9034
TOCOM Silver 53.60 -0.20 -0.37 3.68
368
TOCOM Palladium 1414.00 6.00 +0.43 21.37
116
Euro/Dollar 1.2682
Dollar/Yen 83.88
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Additional reporting by Nicholas Trevethan in Singapore;
Editing by Manash Goswami)
(lewa.pardomuan@thomson reuters.com; +65 6870 3834; Reuters
Messaging: lewa.pardomuan.reuters.com@reuters.net))
