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Gold rides on surging oil, holds near 1-week high

SINGAPORE - Gold advanced on Friday and held near its strongest in more than a week as investors shifted some of their money back into bullion on a weaker dollar and tensions between Russia and the United States that lifted oil. In the physical sector, jewellers in Thailand cashed in on gold's gains but there was light buying from other consumers which helped premiums for gold bars stay above $1 to spot London prices as tight supplies persisted.

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‘I can see some buying but it has slowed down a little bit. I think they may be running out of bullets,’ said Beh Hsia Wah, a dealer at United Overseas Bank in Singapore.

Gold rose to $835.50/836.50 an ounce from $832.40/833.40 an ounce late in New York. Gold rallied to $839 an ounce on Thursday, its strongest since Aug. 11, also driven by news of a bullion coin shortage in the U.S.

Oil was steady around $121 on Friday, after jumping nearly 5 percent in previous session on tensions between the United States and Russia and asliding US dollar.The United States said on Thursday that Russia must withdraw its military forces from Georgia ‘now’, saying Moscow was in violation of a commitment to do so made earlier this month.

In theory, surging oil prices and geopolitical tensions lift gold's safe-haven appeal.

‘Whether or not it will be sustained, I guess it really depends on what rhetoric we get from Russia in the days ahead. I believe it's possible we may go on further from here,’ said Darren Heathcote of Investec Australia in Sydney.

‘There seems to be a bit of a return to favour commodities again in the last couple of days. I think the physical buying has helped to support it as well,’ he said.

Despite the gains, gold was still well below a record high of $1,030.80 an ounce hit in March. Analysts pegged resistance levels at $840 and $850 an ounce.

New York gold futures added $2.7 an ounce to $841.70.

Spot platinum rose to $1,464.50/1,484.50 an ounce from $1,449.50/1,469.50 an ounce late in New York, having hit a 1-week high of $1,472.50 an ounce earlier on Friday.

Dealers also noted bargain buying from Japanese retail investors and trading houses on Tokyo platinum futures

‘I personally think platinum prices have reached their bottom. But at this moment, I couldn't confirm if automobile companies have started to buy,’ said Yukuji Sonoda, precious metals analyst at Daiichi Commodities in Tokyo.

Platinum tumbled to its weakest since last September around $1,296 on Tuesday on weak gold prices and worries about falling demand for autocatalysts because of a slowing US economy and poor car sales. It struck a lifetime high of $2,290 in March.

Spot palladium inched up to $291.50/299.50 an ounce from $286.00/294.00 an ounce. Silver firmed to $13.88/13.94 an ounce from $13.80/13.87 an ounce.

The most active Tokyo gold contract for June 2009 delivery on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange rose 55 yen per gram to 2,947 yen.

Precious metals prices at 0727 GMT

MetalLastChange Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover

Spot Gold833.90-1.55-0.190.14

Spot Silver13.840.03+0.22-6.30

Spot Platinum1466.5016.50+1.14-3.52

Spot Palladium289.503.00+1.05-21.33

TOCOM Gold2941.0049.00+1.69-3.89 40109

TOCOM Platinum5123.00 287.00+5.93-4.05 21590

TOCOM Silver490.5016.60+3.50-9.33 944

TOCOM Palladium 1049.0025.00+2.44-22.35 1346

Euro/Dollar1.4881

Dollar/Yen109.01

TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which is priced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce.