PRECIOUS-Gold ticks higher near record, firm dollar weighs

* Gold inches up in thin trade; Japanese investors away

* Non-commercial net longs on COMEX gold at all time high

* SPDR gold holdings unchanged at 1,109.314 tonnes

By Lewa Pardomuan

SINGAPORE, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Gold edged up near last
week's record high on Monday but the dollar's rebound as well
as worries about falling jewellery demand in main consumer
India were seen likely to limit gains.

Gold gained nearly 5 percent last week as dollar weakness
pushed gold to a series of record highs. Bullion, which
attracts safe-haven buying in times of uncertainties, had its
best weekly performance in nearly half a year.

Spot gold XAU= was quoted at $1,049.80 an ounce at 0428
GMT, up $1.55 from New York's notional close and within
striking distance of a lifetime high of $1,061.20 an ounce
struck last Thursday. Spot gold is up almost 20 percent so far
this year.

"The dollar is still the key factor here and should it
start to show signs of a bounce, then gold could face a bit of
pressure. But that's not the case for now," said Adrian Koh,
analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.

"Gold is sort of pausing after the strong rally last week
and there's really no clear direction yet. I guess sellers are
on the sidelines at the moment, still waiting for a clearer
signal and they dont want to be caught out when gold starts to
rally again."

The dollar, which was under relentless pressure last week,
held above recent 14-month lows against a basket of currencies
.DXY on Monday as dealers traders cut some of their short
dollar positions on prospects that U.S. interest rates will
move up earlier than expected. [USD/]

U.S. gold futures for December delivery GCZ9 added $2.60
an ounce to $1,051.20 on the COMEX division of the New York
Mercantile Exchange, hovering near last week's record around
$1,062 an ounce.

Noncommercial net longs in COMEX gold futures rose to an
all-time high 239,668 lots in the week ended Oct. 9, up 3.6
percent from the previous week, data from the U.S. Commodity
Futures Trading Commission showed. [ID:nWEN4566]

While gold's overall trend was bullish, there were signs
that demand from the jewellery sector, which accounts for more
than half of global gold consumption, had fallen due to high
prices. Trading was slow in Asia on Monday, with Japanese
speculators away for a holiday.

"We've already seen Indian gold imports falling quite
strongly in the second quarter this year when prices started to
soar," Tony Parry, a senior resource analyst at Resource
Capital Research, told a gold mining conference in Perth on
Monday.

"The Indian and Chinese markets are very price sensitive
and the current volatility in gold prices will encourage them
to take a wait-and-see attitude," he said.

In India, which is in the middle of the main gold-buying
festival season, traders stayed away from taking fresh
positions on Friday, seeking a fall in prices.

India's gold imports in September provisionally fell 30
percent, the smallest year-on-year decline in five months.
[GOL/IN]

Precious metals prices at 0428 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg Day ago pct MA 30 RSI
Spot gold $1049.80 $1.55 +0.15% +17.03% $860.10
70
Spot silver $17.80 $0.13 +0.74% +48.58% $11.29
67
Spot plat $1332.50 $0.50 +0.04% +40.41% $948.98
60
Currencies
Euro/dlr $1.471 $0.157 +11.95% +11.60%
Dlr/yen 90.12 -0.26 -0.29% +1.35%
(Additional reporting by Fayen Wong in PERTH; Editing by
Lincoln Feast)