* Gold underpinned by its allure as currency alternative
* Gold has lost $30 from 4-month high near $1,170/oz
* Coming up: U.S. leading indicators for March at 1400 GMT
By Risa Maeda
TOKYO, April 19 (Reuters) - Spot gold was little changed on
Monday, showing resilience despite extended declines in other
commodities after U.S. regulators charged Goldman Sachs, a
leading commodities player, with fraud late last week.
Gold was underpinned by investor demand as an asset to hedge
against currency volatility. A quick retreat by more than $30
from last week's high near $1,170 was also providing a chance to
lock in profits for traders who had sold the precious metal near
the four-month high, analysts said.
"Oil took a hit again but gold didn't. That's mainly because
gold is maintaining its allure as an alternative to currencies,"
said Shuji Sugagta, a manager in Mitsubishi Corp Futures Ltd's
research team.
"Gold also looks like it has fallen to an attractive level to
buy," he said.
Spot gold <XAU=> stood at $1,135.50 per ounce at 0517 GMT
compared with New York's notional close of $1,136.45.
In contrast, oil <CLc1> fell more than $1 to below $82 a
barrel on Monday, extending the previous session's 2.7 percent
decline. []
In the currency market, the yen extended gains while
higher-yielding currencies such as the Australian dollar fell, as
investor appetite for riskier assets took a hit on fears about
broader fallout from the charges against Goldman. []
Greece's debt woes were not the main talking point for now.
With a trip to Greece by European and IMF officials delayed by
the volcanic ash cloud over Europe, no major updates were
expected before Wednesday. []
Gold hit a trough below $1,130 to a one-week low on Friday,
reversing an earlier rally in the week to a four-month high of
$1,168.70.
It fell 1.9 percent last week, marking its worst performance
in a month and snapping a two-week winning streak.
For technical analysis of the spot gold price, click
[]
Friday's sell-off came as the market fretted over further
selling related to Goldman and the prospect of tighter financial
regulations in metals and commodities. []
[]
The CBOE Volatility index <.VIX>, Wall Street's gauge of
investor fear, surged 15.54 percent on Friday to its highest
level since early March.
One concern was over the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission's charging Goldman with hiding from investors the
involvement of John Paulson, a prominent hedge fund manager, in
creating a subprime mortgage debt product that he was betting
against.
Paulson, one of the most notable gold investors, is the
biggest owner in SPDR Gold Trust <GLD>, with 8.4 percent of the
world's biggest gold exchange traded fund.
The gold holdings of SPDR Gold were unchanged as of the close
on Friday at 1,141.041 tonnes, the same as the previous day.
[]
The holdings of the world's largest silver-backed
exchange-traded fund, the iShares Silver Trust <SLV>, fell 0.5
percent on Friday to 8,912.94 tonnes. []
U.S. gold futures for June delivery <GCM0> were almost flat
at $1,136.20 per ounce compared with Friday's $1,136.90 on the
COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Non-commercial net long U.S. gold futures positions rose 8.5
percent to 220,742 contracts in the week to April 13, according
to the weekly Commitments of Traders report published by the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission. []
Other precious metals were flat to lower, with spot palladium
<XPD=> falling 1.5 percent to $520.75 per ounce.
Precious metals prices at 0515 GMT
Metal Price Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover
Spot Gold 1135.45 -1.00 -0.09 3.63
Spot Silver 17.62 -0.05 -0.28 4.69
Spot Platinum 1683.50 -7.00 -0.41 14.72
Spot Palladium 520.25 -7.75 -1.47 28.42
TOCOM Gold 3371 -74.00 -2.15 3.44 48395
TOCOM Platinum 4967 -128.00 -2.51 13.40 18945
TOCOM Silver 53 -2.20 -4.01 1.74 383
TOCOM Palladium 1532 -60.00 -3.77 31.67 812
Euro/Dollar 1.3467
Dollar/Yen 92.0600
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Additional reporting by Chikako Mogi; Editing by Joseph
Radford)
