* iShares Silver Trust <SLV> holdings hit record
* SPDR Gold Trust <GLD> holdings steady
* Crude oil <CLc1> rises above $77
(Updates prices, adds analyst comment)
By Rebekah Curtis
LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Gold rose on Friday, hovering
below the previous session's record high and holding above
$1,100 an ounce as ongoing dollar weakness offered support.
Bullion has struck record highs for six out of the past
eight sessions, scoring an all-time peak of $1,122.85 on
Thursday on market expectations the dollar will fall further.
Spot gold <XAU=> was at $1,106.05 per ounce at 1259 GMT, up
0.2 percent from New York's notional close of $1,103.60.
The U.S. currency was 0.2 percent lower against a basket of
currencies and is down about 7 percent so far this year, making
commodities priced in the greenback cheaper for holders of other
currencies. []
"It's hard to see what's going to stop it continuing to
trend up," Stephen Briggs, a commodities strategist for RBS in
London, said of gold.
"The only thing that seems likely to puncture this would be
a reversal in the dollar, but it's still on a clear downward
trend." He said there was a "uniformity" in the market's view
that the dollar would weaken further.
Gold headed for a 1-percent gain this week. It rose 4.9
percent last week, the biggest weekly gain since late April.
U.S. gold futures for December delivery <GCZ9> were little
changed at $1,106.50 per ounce. They hit a record high of
$1,123.40 on Thursday.
Investors are also expecting more central bank buying after
news last week that the International Monetary Fund had sold 200
tonnes of bullion to India's central bank.
"There's so much bullishness now about gold," said David
Thurtell, an analyst at Citi. "It's hard to see any real reasons
why you'd want to sell it."
"It can get to $1,250 before we get a really serious
correction," he added. "That might...be early next year."
OIL TOO
U.S. crude oil <CLc1> rose above $77. Gold often moves in
line with crude, both because it can be used as a hedge against
oil-led inflation and as rising crude prices often increase
interest in commodities as an asset class.
The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR
Gold Trust <GLD> said its holdings stood at 1,114.443 tonnes as
of Nov. 12, unchanged from the previous day. []
And South Africa, previously the world's top producer, said
gold output fell 9.3 percent in volume terms in September
compared to a year earlier. []
There was a revival in interest in silver with holdings in
the world's largest silver-backed exchange-traded fund hitting a
record high.
The holdings in the iShares Silver Trust <SLV> rose 183.37
tonnes, or 2.1 percent, from the previous day to an all-time
high of 8,923.52 tonnes as of Nov. 12. []
Silver <XAG=> traded at $17.18 from $17.21. Platinum <XPT=>
was at $1,354 from $1,350.50 and palladium was at $351 from
$346.95.
But some warn the fundamentals for silver remain a concern.
"Silver is really struggling to keep up with gold at the
moment because this is a gold story, it is not a silver story,"
RBS' Briggs said. "Silver is only a geared play on gold, its own
fundamentals are not great. If it weren't for the ETF buying the
market is in surplus."
(Editing by Keiron Henderson)
