* Foreign investors sell $148.9 bln in U.S. securities-data
* Equity markets rise on hopes downturn may bottom out
(Updates prices, adds detail of U.S. data)
By Jan Harvey
LONDON, March 16 (Reuters) - Gold slipped more than 1
percent on Monday after U.S. equities opened higher, diminishing
the precious metal's appeal as a haven from risky investments.
Spot gold <XAU=> fell to a low of $914.70 and was quoted at
$916.80/918.00 an ounce at 1353 GMT from $927.90 late in New
York on Friday.
U.S. gold futures for April delivery <GCJ9> on the COMEX
division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $12.40 to
$917.70 an ounce.
"We've had a good equity market opening," HSBC analyst James
Steel said. "As we got closer to the actual opening itself it
became clear that we were going to have a reasonable increase,
and that weighed on gold."
World stocks climbed again on Monday for the fifth session
in a row as hopes the U.S. economic downturn may be bottoming
out lifted appetite for equities. []
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Sunday the
United States should start recovering from recession next year.
[]
A slight pick-up in risk appetite rippled through the
markets because of his comments, with assets such as gold and
the dollar, which benefit from risk aversion, dipping as stocks
ticked up.
The euro extended gains against the dollar after U.S.
Treasury data showed foreign investors sold a record $148.9
billion in U.S. securities in January, adding to concerns about
the country's ability to finance its current account deficit.
The uncertain economic outlook and concerns over financial
sector stability have driven strong buying of gold and products
such as bullion-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) since the
beginning of the year.
"Gold has been kind of caught mid-way between rising stock
markets and investment fund flow through the ETF channel,"
Pradeep Unni, senior analyst at Richcomm Global Services, said.
"Technically it looks like gold has been waiting for
stronger clues from the stock markets."
The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the
SPDR Gold Trust <GLD>, said holdings hit a record 1,056.82
tonnes on March 15, up 15.29 tonnes from a day before.
[]
TRUST
The SPDR trust took over from the Swiss National Bank as the
sixth-largest gold holder last week. Further buying in ETFs is
likely to support gold, analysts said.
"It's likely that additional ETF buying will be seen this
week," MF Global analyst Tom Pawlicki said. "Such buying will
raise the notion again that investment is enough to make up for
the fall-off in jewellery demand."
Gold's underlying supply and demand fundamentals were
lending little support to prices, analysts said, with jewellery
sales still languishing and scrap supply steady.
Among other precious metals, spot silver <XAG=> tracked gold
down to $12.82/12.89 an ounce from $13.17.
Spot platinum <XPT=> was little changed at
$1,051.50/1,056.50 an ounce from $1,054.50, while spot palladium
<XPD=> was steady at $197/201 an ounce from $196.50.
U.S. industrial production data showed the U.S. motor
vehicle assembly rate rose to 4.73 million units in February
from 3.83 million in June. []
However, traders said it would take more than one month of
improved data to restore confidence in the beleaguered car
market. Carmakers are the major users of the platinum group
metals in autocatalyst manufacturing.
(Additional reporting by Paul Lauener; editing by James
Jukwey and Sue Thomas)
