(Updates to late afternoon, adds comments)
By Lewa Pardomuan
SINGAPORE, April 9 (Reuters) - Gold slid on Wednesday as
early buying ran out of steam amid concerns over a plan by the
International Monetary Fund to sell around 400 tonnes of gold.
Investors were also looking forward to central bank
meetings later this week that may offer direction to currencies
and precious metals. Other precious metals were also off their
peaks in tandem with the fall in gold.
As of 0621 GMT, spot gold was at $911.00/911.90 per ounce,
down from $913.10/913.90 late in New York on Tuesday, when it
fell more than 1 percent as speculators booked profits and
reacted to news of the IMF's planned sale.
"Concerns about IMF sales are giving psychological pressure
to the market, limiting the topside of gold," said Shuji
Sugata, manager at Mitsubishi Corp Futures and Securities in
Tokyo.
"The market is also reluctant to buy gold actively on price
gains given the recent recovery in the dollar," Sugata said.
The IMF is the world's third-largest gold holder after the
United States and Germany, with 3,217.3 tonnes in stock. It
wants to sell 403.3 tonnes and use the profits to invest in
government and corporate bonds, and possibly equities.
The benchmark February gold contract on the Tokyo Commodity
Exchange <0#JAU:> stood at 3,021 yen per gram, down 25 yen or
0.8 percent from Tuesday's close of 3,046 yen.
Tokyo traders said TOCOM gold was put under technical
selling pressure as the yen <JPY=> firmed slightly against the
dollar.
Spot gold was expected to be supported as investment funds
were looking to buy on dips, traders said.
"Technically, having reached $924, we now see the
possibility of a move higher toward the next resistance levels
at $937 and from there to $951 and $952," Investec Australia
said in a daily note.
Gold struck a record high of $1,030.80 an ounce on March 17
before falling in a broad commodities sell-off. It hit a
two-month low of $872.90 last week.
The Bank of Japan kept its interest rate target unchanged
at 0.5 percent on Wednesday, as expected.
The European Central Bank is also expected to keep interest
rates on hold, but the Bank of England could cut its key rate
on Thursday.
Gold futures for June delivery <GCM8> on the COMEX division
of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $3.3 an ounce to
$914.7 an ounce.
Spot platinum <XPT=> rose to $2,012/2,022 an ounce from
$2,008/2,018 late in New York.
The February TOCOM platinum futures <0#JPL:> was trading at
6,513 yen a gram, up 30 yen or 0.5 percent from 6,483 yen on
Thursday.
Silver <XAG=> fell to $17.57/17.62 an ounce from
$17.64/17.69 an ounce.
Spot palladium <XPD=> inched down to $448/453 an ounce from
$449/457 an ounce.
Precious metals prices at 0620 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg
Turnover
Spot Gold 911.00 -4.00 -0.44 9.40
Spot Silver 17.61 -0.03 -0.17 19.23
Spot Platinum 2015.00 7.00 +0.35 32.57
Spot Palladium 448.00 -1.00 -0.22 21.74
TOCOM Gold 3022.00 -24.00 -0.79 -1.24
39161
TOCOM Platinum 6519.00 36.00 +0.56 22.10
18004
TOCOM Silver 584.20 -12.30 -2.06 7.99
1252
TOCOM Palladium 1513.00 5.00 +0.33 11.99
1312
Euro/Dollar 1.5723
Dollar/Yen 102.30
TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which is
priced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Additional reporting by Chikafumi Hodo in Tokyo; Editing by
Michael Urquhart)
