* Gold futures hit $1,000/oz for 1st time since Feb
* MSCI Asia index ex Japan hits highest in a year
* Shanghai and Nikkei fluctuate between gains and losses
By Charlotte Cooper
TOKYO, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Asian shares touched a one-year
high on Tuesday, while gold prices hit $1,000 an ounce for the
first time in six months in a sign of investor concerns about
the sustainability of the global economic recovery.
Asian shares shrugged off a lack of direction from
holidaying U.S. markets and most powered higher, including
laggards such as the Nikkei, which has yet to recover levels it
touched a year ago despite a rise of nearly 50 percent from its
March lows.
European and U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher
start even though financial spread betters expected main
European indices to slip back with profit-taking eating into
gains that took them near 11-month closing highs.
The MSCI index of Asian shares excluding Japan
<.MIAPJ0000PUS> rose to its highest in a year, gaining 0.9
percent.
Spot gold <XAU=> and U.S. gold futures <GCZ9> both rose as
high as $1,000 an ounce, the strongest since February, with
both simmering economic worries and longer term inflation
concerns driving the gains. But both soon fell back.
Analysts warned volume was thin and that momentum could
soon wane, with a tendency of big Asian consumers to sell into
rising prices.
"I don't know if it will stay there for a particularly long
(period). My view is that by the end of the year the gold price
will be lower, probably down to around $950 an ounce," said
David Moore, a commodities strategist at Commonwealth Bank of
Australia.
Many investors are worried that stock market rallies have
got ahead of a global economic recovery that they fear will not
create jobs and will be hard to sustain once government
stimulus efforts fade.
But gains by shares in gold producers helped lift
Australian stocks towards their highest close in 11 months,
with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index <> rising 1.4 percent
to 4,517.4.
RESOURCE DEALS
Resources deals also gave the Australian market a boost.
State-owned China Railway Materials Commercial Corp is set
to take a stake in iron ore explorer FerrAus <FRS.AX> and
Chinese state-owned power producer China Guangdong Nuclear
Power Holding Co. Ltd agreed a takeover for uranium explorer
Energy Metals <EME.AX>.
News of a $16.7 billion bid by North America's Kraft Foods
<KFT.N> for UK confectioner Cadbury <CBRY.L> was also taken as
a sign of recovery after the turmoil of the past year, even
though the bid was rejected. []
In Taiwan, shares rose 1.2 percent to a one-year high as a
smaller-than-expected fall in exports in August from a year
earlier offset the surprise resignation of its prime minister,
a move not expected to have big political or economic impact.
[]
Notoriously volatile Shanghai shares <> opened down
0.5 percent as profit-taking set in after five days of gains
but then turned higher, while the Nikkei closed up 0.7 percent
after drifting between negative and positive territory.
Semiconductor-linked shares gained, with Tokyo Electron
<8035.T> rising 2.4 percent and chip-equipment tester Advantest
<6857.T> gaining 1.5 percent.
Some analysts thought the rise in gold might be driven by
concerns about the dollar's strength, with investors using it
as a hedge against dollar weakness as the greenback edged
lower.
The dollar index <.DXY>, its measure against a basket of
six currencies, slipped slightly further towards August's
10-month low. The dollar also lost 0.3 percent to 92.75 yen
<JPY=>
Growth-linked currencies, such as the Australian <AUD=D4> and
New Zealand dollars <NZD=D4> held near one-year highs set
against the U.S. dollar on Monday.
Oil <CLc1> rose above $68 a barrel ahead of an OPEC
meeting, which analysts believe may see more rhetoric on
compliance but no change in output targets.
(Additional reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Tomasz
Janowski)
