PRECIOUS-Gold regains strength on bargain hunting,silver steadies

SINGAPORE, May 20 (Reuters) - Gold regained strength on bargain hunting on
Friday, while silver steadied after discouraging U.S. housing and factory data
weighed on commodities in the previous session.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold added $2.91 an ounce to $1,494.51 by 0025 GMT -- well
below a lifetime high around $1,575 an ounce struck in early May.

* Silver barely moved, standing at 35.14 an ounce. The metal hit a
record at $49.51 an ounce in April.

* Investors forsook gold exchange traded funds in the first quarter in
favour of coins and bars, the World Gold Council said, with buying of physical
investment products helping lift overall bullion demand by 11 percent.
[ID:nLDE74H1FE]

* Commodities fell back on Thursday, a day after posting the biggest gains
since March, as economic worries weighed on oil prices and profit-taking
snapped a sharp rally in grains.

MARKET NEWS

* Japan's Nikkei was flat on Friday, as worries about a recovery in the U.S.
economy lingered, while investors stayed on the sidelines before the Japanese
central bank's policy meeting decision is released.

* The dollar slid on Thursday as weak U.S. economic data affirmed
expectations the Federal Reserve will keep monetary policy ultra-loose for a
while, keeping interest rates for the greenback very low compared with
higher yielding currencies.

DATA EVENTS (GMT)

0000 Japan BOJ rate decision May 2011

1130 India M3 Money Supply 40664

1430 U.S. ECRI Index Weekly

Precious metals prices 0025 GMT
Metal             Last    Change  Pct chg  YTD pct chg  Turnover
Spot Gold        1494.51    2.91   +0.20      5.29
Spot Silver        35.14    0.19   +0.54     13.87
Spot Platinum    1764.99    2.49   +0.14     -0.14
Spot Palladium    722.80   -1.20   -0.17     -9.59
TOCOM Gold       3938.00    6.00   +0.15      5.60        23537
TOCOM Platinum   4698.00  -15.00  -0.32      0.04         4509
TOCOM Silver       92.20    0.30   +0.33     13.83          700
TOCOM Palladium  1913.00  -14.00   -0.73     -8.77          149
Euro/Dollar       1.4297
Dollar/Yen         81.72

TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.

(Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Reuters Terminal users can see related news and prices by
double clicking on the codes in brackets:
- All precious metals headlines
- Precious metals market reports
- Daily fixing headlines
- Technical analysis
- Indian gold reports
- European gold prices <0#PREC>
- London interbank gold forward rates <0#GOFO=>
- London silver forwards
- Gold lease rates <0#LGLR=>
- London Bullion Market Association
- New York Comex gold <0#GC:> and silver <0#SI:>
- New York platinum <0#PL:> and palladium <0#PA:>
- Asian gold prices <0#PREC>
- Australian precious metals prices <0#AUPREC=>
- Shanghai Gold Exchange prices
- Hong Kong gold exchange prices
- Hong Kong bullion prices
- Indian bullion prices <0#PREC-IN>
- Japanese producer prices
For Related News and other topics, double click on one of these
codes:
SPEED GUIDES