* Gold regains strength as dollar slips against euro
* Physical buying emerges at lower levels
* Oil slips to around $60 a barrel, Nikkei down 3.6 pct
(Recasts)
By Lewa Pardomuan
SINGAPORE, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Gold bounced on Friday after
the dollar turned lower and buying by jewellers emerged but
weaker equities could still spur selling in bullion, which this
week posted its biggest daily percentage gain in more than a
month.
Funds cashed in gold to cover stockmarket losses, and
investors also awaited the release of U.S. jobs data that set
the tone for the dollar and precious metals. Gold was nearly 30
percent below a record high above $1,000 hit in March.
Gold <XAU=> hit a low of $724.75 an ounce before rebounding
to $735.60 an ounce, up $2.65 from New York's notional close on
Thursday, when it moved in a $19 range to hit a session high of
$760 an ounce before retreating.
"The non-farm payrolls data is coming out later tonight.
It's going to be relatively quiet ahead of that. In the
meantime, it's just drifting around with the dollar," said
Peter Tse, a dealer at Scottia Mocatta in Hong Kong.
"Probably if gold dips below $720, we might see more
physical buying around," he said.
Gold has gained as much as 6.2 percent this week to hit a
session high of $768. It was still down from a two-month high
of $931 hit in October but significantly higher than a 13-month
low of $680.80 also struck last month.
"We are now at a lower range. I believe there's a lot of
demand from short-term speculators around the $700 to $720
level. They might be accumulating (gold) slowly," said William
Kwan, bullion director of Gold Capital Management.
"A lot of people are still buying gold coins. Retail
investors are very happy to buy gold at these levels."
On the physical front, premiums for gold bars were steady
between $1.50 and $2 an ounce to spot London prices in
Singapore. Premiums were also stable in Hong Kong at between $2
and $3 an ounce. <GOLD/ASIA1>.
"It's cooling off a little but physical demand has been
very good in the past two weeks. Demand is so good in Thailand
that we've seen streams of people buying gold at jewellery
shops in Chinatown," said a dealer in Singapore.
"We also heard many people crossed over to Thailand from
Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam to buy jewellery," he said.
Despite buying on dips by consumers, gold was struggling to
revisit March's record at $1,030.80, partly blamed on a slump
in the equities markets that forced investors to cash in to
make good losses.
The Nikkei average slid 3.6 percent on Friday, with
exporters tumbling on a firmer Japanese yen and fears of a
deepening economic downturn. []
Recession fears sent oil prices to below $60 a barrel for
the first time in 20 months at one point on Friday. []
In theory, weaker oil prices reduce gold's appeal as a
hedge against inflation.
Among currencies, the euro rose to $1.2736 <EUR=> ahead of
the U.S. jobs data which is likely to show that job cuts hit a
five-year high of 200,000 in October, according to a Reuters
poll, and October unemployment jumped to 6.3 percent from 6.1
percent. []
Platinum <XPT=> was trading at $834.00 ounce, up $7.50 from
New York's notional close on Thursday.
New York gold futures <GCZ8> added $4.3 an ounce to
$736.5.
Precious metals prices at 0708 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg
Turnover
Spot Gold 735.60 2.65 +0.36 -11.66
Spot Silver 10.10 0.14 +1.41 -31.62
Spot Platinum 834.00 7.50 +0.91 -45.13
Spot Palladium 215.50 0.50 +0.23 -41.44
TOCOM Gold 2307.00 -35.00 -1.49 -24.61
48402
TOCOM Platinum 2612.00 -128.00 -4.67 -51.08
16730
TOCOM Silver 315.50 -8.20 -2.53 -41.68
596
TOCOM Palladium 693.00 -2.00 -0.29 -48.70
408
Euro/Dollar 1.2756
Dollar/Yen 97.50
TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which is
priced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
