SINGAPORE, May 27 (Reuters) - Gold inched up on Friday on mounting worries about whether Greece would receive its next round of aid from the IMF, while silver regained strength after tumbling from a two-week top in the previous session.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold added $5.60 an ounce to $1,523.70 an ounce by 0009 GMT, still well below a lifetime high around $1,575 touched in early May.
* Silver rose 25 cents to $37.49 an ounce in thin trade. It had rallied to a two-week high at $38.84 on Thursday before hitting a low around $36 as speculators booked profits. Silver struck record at $49.51 an ounce in April.
* The International Monetary Fund may withhold the next slice of aid to Greece due next month, the head of euro zone finance ministers Jean-Claude Juncker said on Thursday, spooking markets with the possibility of default. [ID:nLDE74P1HC]
But Juncker's spokesman later clarified that if European and IMF inspectors were convinced by new Greek austerity measures, there would be no problem with the June aid tranche.[ID:nLDE74P25M]
* Holdings of the largest silver-backed ETF, New York's iShares Silver Trust and the largest gold-backed exchange-traded-fund (ETF), New York's SPDR Gold Trust remained unchanged on Thursday.
* Chinese gold imports could exceed 400 tonnes in 2011, leading global consultancy GFMS said. [ID:nL3E7GQ0B8]
MARKET NEWS
* Japan's benchmark Nikkei average opened down 0.50 percent at 9,514.16 on Friday, while the broader Topix shed 0.29 percent to 824.70.
* The euro hit a record low versus the Swiss franc on Thursday on mounting doubts whether Greece will receive its next round of aid from the IMF, and the worries are likely to keep the single currency under pressure.
DATA EVENTS (GMT)
0800 EZ Money-M3 3m moving av Apr 2011
0900 EZ Business climate May 2011
0900 EZ Economic sentiment May 2011
1230 U.S. Personal income mm Apr
1355 U.S. Reuters/U. Mich sentiment May 2011 1230 U.S. Pending Home Sales Apr 1430 U.S. ECRI weekly index
Precious metals prices 0009 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover
Spot Gold 1523.70 5.60 +0.37 7.34
Spot Silver 37.49 0.25 +0.67 21.48
Spot Platinum 1775.00 10.15 +0.58 0.42
Spot Palladium 750.80 -0.65 -0.09 -6.09
TOCOM Gold 3989.00 -43.00 -1.07 6.97 35943
TOCOM Platinum 4690.00 -59.00 -1.24 -0.13 4385
TOCOM Silver 97.80 -3.70 -3.65 20.74 1434
TOCOM Palladium 1970.00 -15.00 -0.76 -6.06 118
Euro/Dollar 1.4130
Dollar/Yen 81.16
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan; Editing by Himani Sarkar)