* Gold strikes fresh record, silver at 31-yr peak
* Coming Up: China CPI yy Mar 2011; 0200 GMT
(Updates prices, adds quotes.)
SINGAPORE, April 15 (Reuters) - Gold jumped to another
record on Friday after the dollar fell to its lowest since late
2009 against a basket of major currencies, taking silver to its
strongest since 1980, but trading was muted ahead of the release
of key Chinese economic data.
Unofficial figures on Thursday suggested Chinese data,
including retail sales, industrial output and consumer inflation
due at 0200 GMT, will probably be higher than expected.
[][]
Spot gold rose $3.81 an ounce to $1,476.71 ounce by
0113 GMT, having hit a record high of $1,479.01 an ounce.
"We see gold peaking at $1,500 an ounce. We think there
could be some more upside in gold in the short term, especially
in this environment of high inflation and rising oil prices,"
said Natalie Robertson, commodities strategist at ANZ.
The peak of $1,500 would be reached by the end of 2011, she
added.
Dealers said worries about inflation had spurred steady
physical demand from China, where the government has vowed to
use all tools at its disposal, including bank reserve
requirements, interest rates and the yuan's exchange rate, to
wrestle inflation under control. []
Spot silver rose as high as $42.41 an ounce, a
31-year peak.
The dollar fell against a basket of major currencies early
in Asia on Friday but looked unlikely to extend losses
significantly ahead of Chinese economic data.
U.S. gold futures for June rose as high as $1,480.5
an ounce, a lifetime high.
U.S. crude futures extended gains for a third day on Friday,
supported by the dollar hovering at 16-month lows and no clear
end to fighting in Libya that has cut supplies from the OPEC
nation.
IShares Silver Trust said its holdings edged up to
10,974.26 tonnes by April 14 from 10,969.71 tonnes on April 13.
The holdings hit a record of 11,242.89 tonnes hit on April 8.
Japan's Nikkei stock average opened lower on Friday and is
expected to round off a week of thin choppy trade inside the
tight range that has confined it since the start of the month,
with resource and energy shares bouncing back after oil prices
gained the day before.
Precious metals prices 0113 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover
Spot Gold 1476.71 3.81 +0.26 4.03
Spot Silver 42.22 0.14 +0.33 36.81
Spot Platinum 1791.49 5.00 +0.28 1.36
Spot Palladium 774.50 13.87 +1.82 -3.13
TOCOM Gold 3987.00 47.00 +1.19 6.92 42283
TOCOM Platinum 4858.00 37.00 +0.77 3.45 7552
TOCOM Silver 113.60 2.70 +2.43 40.25 1632
TOCOM Palladium 2096.00 21.00 +1.01 -0.05 172
Euro/Dollar 1.4487
Dollar/Yen 83.74
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
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