* Gold up 1 pct in early trade, PGMs fall
* Coming Up: Japan consumer confidence Feb 2011; 0500 GMT
(Updates prices, adds premiums in Hong Kong, Singapore)
By Lewa Pardomuan
SINGAPORE, March 14 (Reuters) - Bullion rose as much as 1
percent on Monday as Japan battled to prevent a nuclear
catastrophe after a massive earthquake and tsunami, sending
premiums for gold bars to their highest level since February in
Tokyo.
A badly wounded nation has seen whole villages and towns
wiped off the map by a wall of water, bringing in its wake an
international humanitarian effort of epic scale. More than
10,000 people are feared to have been killed.
Spot gold added $4.74 to $1,422.44 an ounce by 0429
GMT after rising as high as $1,431.89 an ounce as markets began
estimating the huge economic costs caused by the disaster.
Bullion was still off a record high of $1,444.40 hit last
week.
"Some investors expect some of the Japanese insurance
companies to start selling their dollar assets to raise money.
Perhaps gold could be boosted as an alternative currency
itself," said Ong Yi Ling, investment analyst at Phillip Futures
in Singapore.
"In the short term, I think gold prices will head up due to
a flight to safety and investors seeking out a safe haven."
U.S. gold futures for April rose $1.2 an ounce to
$1,423 an ounce.
Silver was off an intraday high. Platinum fell
more than 2 percent to its weakest since early January on
falling equities, putting pressure on palladium .
Both metals are mainly used in auto catalysts. Toyota Motor
Co. said on Monday it had halted production nationwide until
March 16 following the earthquake.
"Platinum is falling all the way down because the global
economy doesn't seem to perform well," said a dealer in Hong
Kong. "There's a lot of mess around," said the dealer, referring
to the quake in Japan, deadly unrest in the Middle East and
Europe's sovereign debt problem.
Japanese stocks fell 7.6 percent, on track for the biggest
daily loss since October 2008, and bond yields rose investors
expected the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the
country's northeast to take an economic toll and require heavy
government borrowing.
The dollar rebounded from near record lows against the yen
on Monday, boosted by hedge fund buying after the Bank of
Japan's injected 7 trillion yen into the money market to help
ease nervousness following the earthquake.
In the physical market, premiums for gold bars jumped to
their highest since February after the quake sharpened fears of
inflation.
"The Japanese market is a bit tight on gasoline, so there
are inflation risks. That's why Tokyo premiums are a bit
higher," said a dealer at a bullion trading house in Tokyo.
Gold bars were quoted at a premium of $1 an ounce to the
spot London prices in Tokyo, up from zero last week and a
discount of 50 cents two weeks ago.
Japan will move quickly to import more liquefied natural gas
and low-sulphur fuels to generate power at thermal plants and
replace nuclear electricity supplies put out of action after the
nation's worst earthquake in recorded history.
Moody's Investor Service said it was awaiting a full
assessment of the damage from Japan's devastating earthquake and
tsunami, but said the impact was worse than initially expected.
Premiums were steady in other parts of Asia, with no signs
of an increase in buying related to the disaster in Japan.
Dealers quoted premiums at $1 to the spot London prices in
Singapore and at between $1 and $1.5 in Hong Kong. GOLD/ASIA1>.
"There's a small amount of buying by jewellers. They are
covering stocks. I think people are just watching the
development in Japan, whether there will be more tsunami or how
the economy is behaving," said the dealer in Hong Kong.
The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR
Gold Trust , said its holdings edged down to 1,215.475
tonnes by March 11, their lowest since May 2010, from 1,217.295
tonnes on March 7, as some investors booked profits from gold's
rise to a record.
Brent crude touched a two-week low near $111 on Monday, down
by nearly $3 on investor pessimism that economic growth will
slow after Japan's earthquake and tsunami, while easing unrest
in the Middle East threw the focus back onto ample oil supplies.
Precious metals prices 0429 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover
Spot Gold 1422.44 4.74 +0.33 0.21
Spot Silver 35.77 -0.06 -0.17 15.91
Spot Platinum 1737.99 -40.51 -2.28 -1.67
Spot Palladium 747.47 -9.53 -1.26 -6.51
TOCOM Gold 3766.00 -27.00 -0.71 0.99 47687
TOCOM Platinum 4622.00 -186.00 -3.87 -1.58 23619
TOCOM Silver 92.50 -0.60 -0.64 14.20 2162
TOCOM Palladium 1969.00 -85.00 -4.14 -6.10 885
Euro/Dollar 1.3925
Dollar/Yen 82.08
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan; Editing by)
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