* Spot gold hits record above $1,500/oz
* Spot silver rises to 31-year high of $44.34
* Coming up: U.S. existing home sales, March; 1400 GMT (Adds gold hitting record high)
By Rujun Shen
SINGAPORE, April 20 (Reuters) - Spot gold prices breached $1,500 for the first time and silver hit a 31-year high on Wednesday, supported by a weak dollar and concerns over a sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone.
Lofty oil prices, inflation concerns, worries over the euro zone sovereign debt crisis as well as political tensions in places like the Middle East should keep gold strong for the time being, analysts said.
"There are not a great deal of reasons to sell it at the moment, apart from concerns that there are a lot of longs in the market and there is a risk of sell-off at some point," said Darren Heathcote, head of trading at Investec Australia.
Spot gold rose to $1,500.16 an ounce before easing
slightly to $1,499.10 by 0513 GMT, up 0.4 percent. U.S. gold
futures
The dollar index , a measure of the greenback against a basket of currencies, softened towards its 16-month low hit last week, boosting the appeal of gold in non-dollar denominated currencies.
Technical analysis also points to a further rally in gold targeting $1,518, according to Reuters market analyst Wang Tao. [ID:nL3E7FK04D]
Some market watchers see gold consolidating at its current level as it waits for the next reason to push higher.
"I don't see prices convincingly past that level in the next few days unless we see something very negative, probably related to the euro zone sovereign debt. But we do see gold very well supported at the $1,490 level," said Natalie Robertson, commodities strategist at ANZ.
Fears over a potential downgrade of the U.S. credit rating eased after U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner tried to reassure investors the country's two parties were making progress on reducing the deficit, she added. [ID:nN19146862]
SILVER HITS 31-YEAR HIGH
Silver continued to charge ahead, rising to a 31-year high for the fifth consecutive session, as investors continued to favour gold's less expensive cousin.
Spot silver rose to $44.34, a level unseen since 1980, before easing slightly to $44.25, up 0.8 percent.
Analysts and traders expected silver to continue to shine, as investors favour the metal, which benefits both from safe haven demand and growing industrial consumption. [ID:nL3E7FI1AA]
"Silver is still in a clear bull trend that targets $50.00 next," said Taso Anastasiou, a UBS technical strategist.
He said the medium-term trend was bullish, but warned that silver might go through a correction in the near term as the metal has been very overbought.
"My key medium-term support level lies at $33.00 and while it is difficult to identify what would cause silver to sell off aggressively, there is an increased chance we will see a correction towards the $35.00 to $33.00 area."
The Relative Strength Index on spot silver rose to above 84, a level unseen since February 2008, indicating a heavily overbought market.
Precious metals prices 0513 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume Spot Gold 1499.10 5.20 +0.35 5.61 Spot Silver 44.25 0.36 +0.82 43.39 Spot Platinum 1785.24 23.74 +1.35 1.00 Spot Palladium 740.22 13.27 +1.83 -7.41 TOCOM Gold 4006.00 46.00 +1.16 7.43 51363 TOCOM Platinum 4803.00 51.00 +1.07 2.28 10144 TOCOM Silver 118.00 4.60 +4.06 45.68 2716 TOCOM Palladium 1990.00 35.00 +1.79 -5.10 236 COMEX GOLD JUN1 1499.80 4.70 +0.31 5.52 11946 COMEX SILVER MAY1 44.27 0.36 +0.81 43.08 6312 Euro/Dollar 1.4386 Dollar/Yen 82.93 TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce. COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months
(Editing by Michael Urquhart)