* Gold holds gains even after U.S. stocks turn higher
* Weaker dollar vs euro, good physical demand help gold
* India import rises ahead of gold-buying festival
(Recasts, updates with quotes, closing prices, adds NEW YORK
to dateline)
By Frank Tang and Jan Harvey
NEW YORK/LONDON, April 22 (Reuters) - Gold ended higher on
Wednesday on a weaker dollar versus the euro and physical
demand firmed in top consumer India ahead of a key gold-buying
festival.
Spot gold <XAU=> traded at $891.10 an ounce at 2:04 p.m.
EDT (1804 GMT), up 1.0 percent from its late Tuesday quote
$882.25 an ounce in New York.
U.S. gold futures for June delivery <GCM9> settled up
$9.80, or 1.1 percent, at $892.50 an ounce on the COMEX
division of New York Mercantile Exchange.
U.S. stocks rose over 1 percent, reversing earlier losses,
as several key companies gave positive outlooks that eased
worries about a prolonged global recession. []
The euro extended gains versus the dollar to session highs
as stocks on Wall Street rebounded. A firmer dollar typically
weighs on gold, which is often bought as an alternative asset
to the U.S. currency. []
Elsewhere, an uptick in physical demand for the metal in
Asia ahead of the Akshaya Tritya festival on April 27 -- an
auspicious time for gold buying -- is also helping support
prices.
"We sold around 100 kgs this morning," said a dealer with a
private bank in Mumbai.
Gold imports in India have also picked up this month after
an extremely slow period at the beginning of 2009.
[]
GOLD ETF HOLDINGS DECLINE
Investor demand remained relatively sluggish, however.
Holdings of the SPDR Gold Trust <GLD>, the world's largest
gold-backed exchange-traded fund, were steady on Tuesday from
the previous day.
The trust's holdings have declined 19.01 tonnes in the last
four weeks, compared with a rise of 96.01 tonnes in the
preceding four weeks.
Inflows into gold-backed ETFs jumped to an all-time high in
the first quarter of this year, the World Gold Council said on
Wednesday. []
Among other precious metals, spot platinum <XPT=> was at
$1,169.50 an ounce, up 1.5 percent from its late Tuesday quote
of $1,152.50, while palladium <XPD=> was at $231.00 an ounce,
up 4.1 percent from its previous finish of $222.
Palladium received underlying support from renewed talk of
its use in cold fusion technology after CBS-TV covered the
topic on its news program "60 Minutes" on Sunday, a NYMEX floor
trader said.
Palladium is employed as one of the main ingredients to
generate energy in cold fusion, but the technology is still in
its experimental stage and has not been scientifically proven
to work.
Meanwhile, the UK government announced it will implement a
car-scrapping scheme similar to the "cash-for-clunkers"
initiatives already in place in countries such as Germany,
which have boosted car sales there. []
Around half of the world's platinum is used by the
automotive industry.
Chinese imports data released on Wednesday showed China
imported 3,566 kilograms of platinum in March, up more than 35
percent from a year before. []
The figures reflect a rise in platinum jewelry buying in
China at the beginning of the year, dealers said, with jewelers
taking advantage of lower prices to rebuild stocks of the
metal.
Spot silver <XAG=> was at $12.32 an ounce, up 2.8 percent
from its previous finish $11.99, tracking gains in gold.
(Editing by Christian Wiessner)
