* Gold holds gains after 2 pct jump above $900 an ounce
* Platinum tracks gold higher despite poor fundamentals
* ETF holdings unchanged; "stress test" may cite 10 banks
By Lewa Pardomuan
SINGAPORE, May 5 (Reuters) - Gold held firm above $900 an
ounce on Tuesday after a weaker U.S. dollar and higher oil
prices lured investors back into the metal, although an
increase in risk appetite and rebounding stock markets checked
gains.
Bullion jumped almost 2 percent on Monday in a rally also
driven by demand from jewellers in main consumer India and
pent-up buying ahead of closely watched results of stress tests
on U.S. banks. Other precious metals tracked gold higher.
Spot gold <XAU=> rose 25 cents to $905.60 an ounce, after
rallying on Monday to its strongest in nearly a week. It
touched a near four-week high of $918.25 last Monday, but has
failed to recapture the near record high above $1,000 touched
in February.
"I would say that the weaker dollar has supported gold a
bit. But I dont think we are out of the woods yet," said Adrian
Koh, analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.
"I think today or the next will be key for gold as we are
hovering near key downtrend resistance around $910-$915. Unless
we are able to hold above these levels, gold could still very
much hover around these levels for some time."
The euro was little changed around $1.3400 <EUR=> after
hitting its highest in a month at $1.3439 on trading platform
EBS as it tried to extend a 1 percent rise on Monday. []
Investors across the markets are focused on this week's
"stress tests" on U.S. banks. U.S. regulators have deemed about
10 of the 19 U.S. banks being stress tested will need to raise
more capital, according to a source familiar with official
talks.
Officials are scheduled to release the official results on
Thursday. []
Industrial commodity markets have rallied over the past few
months on hopes the worst of a global economic recession is
past, a mood that has also renewed investor risk appetite,
leaving the bullion market pulled in different directions.
While rising stock markets could potentially limit gains in
gold, renewed inflation worries fanned in part by oil prices
now hovering near a five-month high have encouraged buying.
"The odd thing to note is that despite the fact that the
equities markets are rallying, gold is going higher as well at
the same time," said a dealer in Singapore.
Bullion has dropped more than 9 percent since spiking to an
11-month high above $1,000 in February on profit taking, lower
oil prices and gains in stocks markets, which prompted some
investors to shift their money into equities.
U.S. gold futures for June delivery <GCM9> rose $2.1 an
ounce at $904.3 on the COMEX division of the New York
Mercantile Exchange, having hit a high of $908.30 on Monday --
its highest since April 27.
The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the
SPDR Gold Trust <GLD>, said holdings stayed at 1,104.45 tonnes
as of May 4, unchanged since April 23. []
PRICES
Precious metals prices at 0528 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg Day ago pct MA 30
RSI Spot gold $903.40 $1.05 +0.12% +0.71% $860.10
57
Spot silver $13.03 $0.02 +0.15% +8.76% $11.29
61
Spot plat $1120.00 $3.00 +0.27% +2.94% $1152.28
43
COMEX gold $904.30 $2.10 +0.23% +1.81% $900.36
55
Currencies
Euro/dlr $1.337 $0.014 +1.04% +0.91%
Dlr/yen 98.74 1.97 +2.04% +1.64%
(Editing by Jonathan Leff)
