* Gold dips below $900 on falling oil
* Platinum bounces, palladum eases but near 3-month high
* Tokyo platinum futures fall on profit taking
(Updates prices)
By Lewa Pardomuan
SINGAPORE, June 20 (Reuters) - Gold edged below $900 an
ounce on Friday, surrendering the previous session's gains,
after oil extended losses, while palladium dipped after hitting
a 3-month high.
Gold XAU= fell to $896.70/897.70 an ounce from
$902.95/904.35 an ounce late in New York on Thursday, when it
jumped as high as $907.90 an ounce, its strongest level in more
than a week, after an early rally in oil prices.
"I suspect, in this environment, the mid-term outlook is
very uncertain. Oil prices are choppy and there's an oil
producer and oil consumer meeting coming up," said David Moore,
an analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.
"I think the longer-run outlook is still for gold prices
probably to trend lower," said Moore, adding that news of
India's sluggish demand also weighed on sentiment.
Gold demand in main consumer India may improve in the
coming months after more than halving this year but will remain
below last year's level because of high prices. [ID:nBOM94564]
Dealers pegged support at $875 and resistance at $910.
Oil CLc1 fell 22 cents to $131.71 a barrel as China's
surprise move to increase fuel prices sparked worries about a
curb in demand from the world's second largest consumer. [O/R].
Markets await the outcome of an emergency meeting on Sunday
in Saudi Arabia between oil consumers and producers to discuss
rising oil prices, which in theory boost gold's appeal as a
hedge against inflation.
Platinum rebounded on persistent worries about supplies,
while sister metal palladium fell but was within sight of a
three-month high as it caught up with recent gains in other
precious metals. Palladium has risen more than 6 percent this
week.
Palladium XPD= dipped to $465.50/473.50 an ounce from
$469.00/477.00. It hit a high of $477 an ounce on Thursday, its
strongest level since mid-March, on firm platinum and market
talk about declines in palladiium stockpile in Russia.
"There's selling out of Tokyo but I also heard there's
buyback from the general public. The market is mixed and
perhaps $460 to $480 will be the range," said a dealer in Hong
Kong.
Spot platinum XPT= rose to $2,046.50/2,066.50 an ounce
from $2,036.50/2,056.50 late in New York.
South African power utility Eskom said it was suffering a
serious shortage of reserves to meet any increase in
electricity demand and that could mean further outages.
[ID:nL19661927]
A power shortage in main platinum producer South Africa
sparked worries about a supply deficit and propelled prices to
an all time high of $2,290 in early March.
Gold futures for August delivery GCQ8 on the COMEX
division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $4.9 an ounce
to $899.2.
Silver XAG= edged down to $17.31/17.37 an ounce from
$17.39/17.44 late in New York.
The most active Tokyo platinum contract for April 2009
delivery <0#JPL:> on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange ended the
morning session 45 yen per gram lower at 6,990 yen.
Precious metals prices at 0253 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg
Turnover
Spot Gold 896.85 -1.00 -0.11 7.70
Spot Silver 17.32 -0.01 -0.06 17.26
Spot Platinum 2046.50 7.50 +0.37 34.64
Spot Palladium 465.50 -3.00 -0.64 26.49
TOCOM Gold 3136.00 32.00 +1.03 2.48
23712
TOCOM Platinum 6990.00 -45.00 -0.64 30.92
12163
TOCOM Silver 606.50 3.90 +0.65 12.11
501
TOCOM Palladium 1645.00 28.00 +1.73 21.76
1471
Euro/Dollar 1.5509
Dollar/Yen 107.94
TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which is
priced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Editing by Ben Tan)
