* Palladium <XPD=> hits 19-mth high before paring gains
* Lease rates for PGMs high, reflecting investment demand
* Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust unchanged
By Risa Maeda
TOKYO, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Gold steadied above $1,110 an ounce
on Thursday, after briefly trimming gains when strong growth data
from China increased concern that Beijing may rein in the
country's rapid expansion and sent the dollar higher.
The allure of gold as a hedge against a weakening dollar was
sapped when the euro <EUR=> fell to a five-month low below
$1.4080 after the Chinese data, while the dollar index <.DXY>
rose to its highest in four months.
The data showed China easily beat its 2009 growth target,
with its gross domestic product expanding 10.7 percent in the
fourth quarter from a year earlier. []
Gold's temporary retreat weighed on the prices of the
platinum group metals, platinum and palladium, but they mostly
held onto recent gains, supported by expectations of continued
money inflows.
Both valued for their use in automobile catalytic converters,
platinum and palladium have been trading at multi-month highs
after the launch of U.S.-based exchange-traded funds backed by
the metals this month.
"Gold has taken a blow from the falling euro. But (platinum
group metals) are showing relatively solid footing. They look
healthy especially after a rebound in platinum from a trough
below $1,600 last night," said Kaname Gokon, deputy general
manager at a Japanese commodity brokerage Okato Shoji Co's
research section.
Gold prices remained in narrow ranges of about $6 as the
dollar's drop was short-lived, providing little incentives for
gold traders who continue to take cues from sharp swings in the
U.S. dollar.
Spot gold <XAU=> was at $1,115.25 an ounce as of 0624 GMT, up
0.4 percent from New York's notional close. It stayed above
Wednesday's low of $1,107, its lowest since Jan. 4, as pent-up
buying underpinned the downside, traders said.
U.S. gold futures for February delivery <GCG0> were at
$1,115.30 an ounce, up 0.2 percent.
Spot palladium <XPD=> rose as high as $471.75 per ounce, its
highest since late June 2008. It stood at at $470.00, up 1
percent from New York.
Spot platinum <XPT=> was at $1,629.50 per ounce, up 0.4
percent from New York's $1,622.50. On Wednesday, it rose as high
as $1,654, a 17-month high, before reversing the gains to hit a
trough of $1,582.50.
High lease rates currently are a good indicator of how strong
investors' appetite is for platinum group metals, said a manager
at a Japanese trading company.
"Lease rates for platinum and palladium started rising
significantly a day before the launch of the U.S.-based ETFs,"
the manager said, adding that lease rates for the two metals are
now around 2 percent.
That is compared with gold's three-month lease rates <LGLR>
around 0.05 percent.
Underlining slowing investment demand in gold, the holdings
of the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR
Gold Trust <GLD>, remained unchanged at 1,111.922 tonnes on
Wednesday from the previous day. []
Precious metals prices at 0626 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover
Spot Gold 1114.90 3.80 +0.34 1.75
Spot Silver 17.96 0.09 +0.50 6.71
Spot Platinum 1629.00 6.50 +0.40 11.04
Spot Palladium 470.00 5.00 +1.08 15.91
TOCOM Gold 3294.00 -37.00 -1.11 1.07 62059
TOCOM Platinum 4776.00 -29.00 -0.60 9.02 22035
TOCOM Silver 53.60 -1.60 -2.90 3.68 468
TOCOM Palladium 1383.00 48.00 +3.60 18.71 601
Euro/Dollar 1.4091
Dollar/Yen 91.55
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Additional reporting by Chikako Mogi; Editing by David Dolan)
