* Gold strikes 2-month high on technical buying
* Fears of global flu pandemic may support gold
* Oil falls 2 percent, Nikkei up 0.8 percent
By Lewa Pardomuan
SINGAPORE, April 27 (Reuters) - Gold jumped to its highest
in more than two months on Monday, defying gains in stock
markets, as chart-based buying picked up on an increase in
China's bullion reserves and partly on fears of a global flu
pandemic.
Other precious metals also tracked gold higher, with silver
rising to a four-week high.
China has raised its gold reserves by 454 tonnes to 1,054
tonnes, making it the fifth-biggest country holder and raising
prospects of further purchases. []
Gold <XAU=> hit an intraday high of $918.25 an ounce, its
highest since early February, before slipping to $915.00, still
$3.90 higher than New York's notional close on Friday.
Bullion, which has registered four straight sessions of
gains, has risen 5 percent over the past week and is 8 percent
below an 11-month high above $1,000 in February.
"I am not too sure how the swine flu will play out. The
problem is the potential for this to explode to pandemic
proportions leaving a lot of people very very wary," said
Darren Heathcofe of Investec Australia.
"It may well benefit gold as gold would be seen as a safe
haven," he said.
Fears of a global swine flu pandemic grew with new
infections in the United States and Canada on Sunday, and
millions of Mexicans hid indoors to avoid the virus.
[]
Flu is characterised by a sudden fever, muscle aches, sore
throat and dry cough. Victims of the new strain have also
suffered more vomiting and diarrhoea than is usual with flu.
Such fears dragged down oil prices []. The Nikkei rose
0.8 percent to track stronger U.S. markets, although worries
about a global flu pandemic also weighed on sentiment. []
"I am not sure about the swine flu thing, but it seems to
be getting worse from what I read," said a dealer in Singapore.
"It looks like we have moved out of the 2-month downtrend
and perhaps gold could head very much higher. The increase in
Chinese reserves did play a part and I guess the technical
traders will perhaps start coming in."
China revealed on Friday it had secretly raised its gold
reserves by three-quarters since 2003, confirming years of
speculation it had been buying. []
Dealers expected gold to face resistance around $932 -- an
intraday high seen in early April.
"Ultimately, we could well be targetting that mid $960s
again, which is that peak in the middle of March," said
Heathcote of Investec Australia.
The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the
SPDR Gold Trust <XAUEXT-NYS-TT>, said holdings remained
unchanged at 1,104.45 tonnes on April 26. []
The speculative long position in gold slipped to 128,367
contracts during the week to April 21 from, 129,895 during the
week to April 14.
Precious metals prices at 0228 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg Day ago pct MA 30
RSI Spot gold $914.50 $3.40 +0.37% +1.95% $860.10
69
Spot silver $13.08 $0.24 +1.87% +9.18% $11.29
69
Spot plat $1175.50 $2.00 +0.17% +0.17% $1156.73
52
COMEX gold $916.60 $3.00 +0.33% +1.15% $907.92
63
TOCOM gold 2,868 17 +0.60% +1.13% 2,884
57
TOCOM plat 3,689 -4 -0.11% -0.97% 3,665
43
Currencies
Euro/dlr $1.317 -$0.006 -0.48% -0.60%
Dlr/yen 96.90 0.13 +0.13% -0.26%
(Additional reporting by Chikako Mogi in Tokyo, Editing by Ben
Tan)
