* Gold rises on weak dollar, record oil prices
* SPDR Gold Trust gold holdings rise 2.5 pct
(Recasts, changes dateline, pvs SINGAPORE)
By Jan Harvey
LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) - Gold climbed on Monday as the
dollar slipped to a one-month low against a basket of currencies
and as oil reached a record high, fuelling buying of the
precious metal as an inflation hedge.
A stock market slide last week also benefited commodities as
an asset class as traders sought alternative investments,
analysts said.
Gold <XAU=> was at $932.50/933.50 an ounce at 0948 GMT, up
from $927.20/928.20 an ounce late in New York on Friday. Earlier
it touched a session high of $934.55 an ounce, its firmest level
since May 22.
"The dollar looks pretty weak, and financial risk is
rising," said Standard Bank analyst Walter de Wet.
"Equities doing so badly over the last week has been good
for commodities in general, and in terms of credit, default
spreads have been rising," he added. "That supports gold."
"We will probably see gold closing higher today than it did
in the last session," he said.
The dollar, which wilted last week after the U.S. Federal
Reserve adopted a less hawkish tone than expected on interest
rates, slid to a one-month low on Monday, battered by weak
equities, strong oil and weak U.S. consumer confidence.
[]
A softer dollar tends to benefit gold, which is often bought
as a hedge against weakness in the U.S. currency. A weaker
greenback makes dollar-priced commodities cheaper for holders of
other currencies.
The other main external driver of gold, oil, also supported
gold, as it hit a new record of $142.94 a barrel on rising
tension between Iran and Israel and as the dollar softened.
Rising crude prices boost gold's appeal as a hedge against
oil-led inflation, as well as fuelling investment interest in
commodities in general.
Investor sentiment towards gold remains positive, with the
quantity of the precious metal held by SPDR Gold Trust <GLD>,
the world's largest bullion-backed exchange-traded fund, rising
by 2.5 percent on Friday. []
SPDR, which launched a new listing on the Tokyo Stock
Exchange on Monday, now holds 644.16 tonnes of gold.
In supply news, South Africa's Gold Fields <GFIJ.J>, the
world's fourth largest gold miner, said it had lost 70 kg of
production due to the closure of its Kloof mine for two days
last week. []
The miner shut its No. 4 shaft after an earth tremor killed
two miners at the pit on Thursday. Blasting at the entire mine
was also halted on Friday.
Among other precious metals, spot platinum <XPT=> rose to
$2,064.00/2,084.00 an ounce from $2,053.50/2,073.50 late in New
York.
Lonmin PLC <LMI.L>, the world's third largest platinum
producer, said it has closed down one of its furnaces for a week
due to a leak in one of its coolers. []
While the company has said it is still assessing the impact
of the closure on production, Fairfax IS analyst John Meyer said
the outage was helping support platinum prices.
Spot palladium <XPD=> rose to $465.00/473.00 an ounce from
$463.00/471.00 an ounce. Speculators booked profits after the
price jumped to a three-month high of $477 on June 19.
Silver <XAG=> rose to $17.77/17.82 an ounce from
$17.52/17.61 late in New York. The largest silver ETF listed in
New York, the iShares Silver Trust <SLV.A>, said its holdings
edged up to 6,002.41 tonnes on June 26 from 5,971.63 tonnes.
(Reporting by Jan Harvey; editing by Christopher Johnson)
