PRECIOUS-Gold holds gains after GDP, posts weekly rise

* Gold cuts gains on profit taking after recent gains
* US GDP slows in Q2, consumer sentiment down
* Physical demand from India lags
* Coming up: U.S. Dalls Fed Manufacturing index monday

(Adds details, updates market activity)
By Frank Tang
NEW YORK, July 27 (Reuters) - Gold rose but was off earlier
highs o n Friday as investors took profits after data showed that
economic growth and consumer sentiment have weakened but not
enough to prompt the U.S. Federal Reserve to take further
stimulative action.
Bullion was up 0.5 percent for the day and logged its
biggest weekly gain in eight weeks, boosted by a pledge from the
head of European Central Bank to preserve the euro and hopes
that the Fed will explore new tools to promote growth in the
U.S. economy.
After rising nearly 1 percent earlier in the session, gold
trimmed its gains after data showed U.S. GDP slowed in the
second quarter from the first quarter, and U.S. consumer
sentiment in July fell to its lowest level of the year.

"We started off reasonably well carrying over from
yesterday. But we have pared gains since then because the
numbers are not as quite as disappointing, and some of the
premium in the gold market has already built in," said James
Steel, metals analyst at HSBC.
Gold has gained 3 percent during its four-day rally. Better
performance of the equities market this week, highlighted by
Friday's 2 percent surge on Wall Street, also lifted bullion.
The metal broke above its 100-day moving average on Thursday
for the first time since May 1.
Spot gold was up 0.5 percent at $1,622.96 an ounce by
3:07 p.m. EDT (1907 GMT), after hitting a high of $1,629.10,
which marked a five-week high.
A break above key chart resistance at around $1,640 an ounce
could send gold back to the top of its intermediate-term range
at $1,800 an ounce, said Mark Arbeter, chief technical
strategist of S&P Capital IQ.
U.S. COMEX gold futures for August delivery settled
up $2.90 at $1,618 an ounce.
Futures trading has been active all week. Friday's trading
volume at 300,000 lots, almost doubled its 30-day average, and
was on track to be the highest turnover since June 1,
preliminary Reuters data showed.
Analysts said that active trading a day after COMEX August
options expiry and a decent contract rollover to December from
August ahead of first-notice day next week suggest bullion could
extend its rally.
Gold has been seesawing between $1,525 and $1,640 in the
last three months, partly due to the Fed's ambiguity on further
monetary easing.
SICA Wealth Management Chief Investment Officer Jeffrey Sica
said his firm, which has over $1 billion in assets, has
accumulated significant amount of gold under $1,600 on hopes of
Fed easing.

PHYSICAL BUYERS ABSENT
Physical gold traders in India, one of the top bullion
consumers, stayed on the sidelines after prices stayed in the
vicinity of their highest level in four weeks.
Among other metals, silver was up 0.7 percent at
$27.68 an ounce from Thursday's close, after hitting a
three-week high of $27.85.
Spot platinum rose 0.4 percent to $1,405.75 an ounce.
Its discount to spot gold increased to around $215 an ounce in
the previous session, its deepest since early December. Spot
palladium was up 1.6 percent at $573.75 per ounce.

3:07 PM EDT LAST/ NET PCT LOW HIGH CURRENT
SETTLE CHNG CHNG VOL
US Gold AUG 1618.00 2.90 0.2 1610.70 1628.60 175,330
US Silver SEP 27.498 0.052 0.2 27.310 27.850 32,125
US Plat OCT 1408.20 2.60 0.2 1403.50 1420.60 5,112
US Pall SEP 571.85 1.95 0.3 569.30 576.35 2,001

Gold 1622.96 7.57 0.5 1612.50 1629.10
Silver 27.680 0.180 0.7 27.400 27.850
Platinum 1405.75 5.85 0.4 1407.08 1415.49
Palladium 573.75 9.00 1.6 572.05 574.25

TOTAL MARKET VOLUME 30-D ATM VOLATILITY
CURRENT 30D AVG 250D AVG CURRENT CHG
US Gold 299,236 160,213 191,893 19.03 -0.96
US Silver 33,904 52,637 58,222 30.74 -4.07
US Platinum 5,242 10,436 9,188 23 0.00
US Palladium 2,113 3,213 4,486

(Additional reporting by Susan Thomas in London; Editing by
Marguerita Choy and Leslie Gevirtz)