(Refiles to fix sign-off) * Gold rises, euro debt crisis, physicals help * Gold to retrace to $1,372/oz -technicals [ID:nL3E7CC021] * Coming Up: U.S. Federal budget, Dec; 1900 GMT (Adds details, quotes) By Lewa Pardomuan SINGAPORE, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Bullion edged up in thin trade on Wednesday, with sentiment supported by high oil prices, lingering worries about the severity of the European debt crisis and a shortage of gold bars in Asia. European finance ministers will discuss increasing the effective lending capacity of their financial rescue fund next week, EU sources said on Tuesday, as Portugal defied pressure to seek a bailout. [ID:nL3E7CB076] Spot gold rose $4.70 an ounce to $1,385.15 an ounce by 0303 GMT. Despite safe haven buying related to the crisis in the euro zone, bullion was well below a historical high of around $1,430 struck in December. But physical dealers said gold could rise further as demand from jewellers and investors picked up in India and China, leading to tighter stocks for gold bars in Singapore and Hong Kong. Premiums for gold bars are at two-year highs. "It's more on the upside. I think physical buying actually provides good support," said Beh Hsia Wah, a dealer at United Overseas Bank in Singapore. "I would say the physical support is there and some buying is there." Worries about inflation in China, the world's second-largest gold consumer after India, drove investors to gold, while purchases from jewellers also increased before the Lunar New Year in February. In India, jewellers stocked up ahead of the harvest season in the middle of January. Gold imports in India are likely to jump 64 percent to 500-550 tonnes in 2011, driven by investment purchases that are likely to affect world prices. [ID:nSGE70607L] U.S. gold futures for February were steady at $1,385 an ounce, having settled $10.2 higher on Tuesday. "Buying from China and India put a floor on gold prices but a strong dollar is likely to cap gold's gains for the time being," said a dealer in Hong Kong. "I think it's a matter of time before the problems in Europe are solved. China and Japan may buy the bonds. Nobody wants the problems in Europe to deteriorate further." Gold may retrace slightly to $1,372 per ounce before rebounding further to $1,392, based on its wave pattern and an inverted head-and-shoulders pattern, according to Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals. For a 24-hour gold technical outlook: here The euro struggled to advance against the greenback early in Asia on Wednesday after posting two straight days of gains, with little upside potential seen in the short term as caution set in ahead of debt sales from highly indebted euro zone members. Japan, following in the footsteps of China, promised to buy euro zone bonds this month in a show of support for the single currency area's struggle to overcome a seething debt crisis that helped steady the euro . But a respected former European Central Bank official, Otmar Issing of Germany, warned that failure to use the crisis to enforce Europe's budget rules more strictly could lead to the eventual breakup of economic and monetary union. In the energy market, U.S. oil prices steadied above $91 on Wednesday following a sharp rally the previous session, supported by the shutdown of two North Sea oil fields and the continued outage of a key Alaskan pipeline. The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust , said its holdings slipped to 1,271.467 tonnes by Jan 11 from 1,272.682 tonnes on Jan 10. Precious metals prices at 0303 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover Spot Gold 1385.15 4.70 +0.34 26.42 Spot Silver 29.71 0.21 +0.71 76.53 Spot Platinum 1774.25 8.26 +0.47 20.94 Spot Palladium 790.97 8.97 +1.15 95.06 TOCOM Gold 3718.00 31.00 +0.84 14.08 42712 TOCOM Platinum 4803.00 95.00 +2.02 9.63 21022 TOCOM Silver 79.80 1.80 +2.31 54.35 1537 TOCOM Palladium 2139.00 93.00 +4.55 83.61 857 Euro/Dollar 1.3000 Dollar/Yen 83.16 TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce. (Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) Reuters Terminal users can see related news and prices by double clicking on the codes in brackets: - All precious metals headlines - Precious metals market reports - Daily fixing headlines - Technical analysis - Indian gold reports - European gold prices <0#PREC> - London interbank gold forward rates <0#GOFO=> - London silver forwards - Gold lease rates <0#LGLR=> - London Bullion Market Association - New York Comex gold <0#GC:> and silver <0#SI:> - New York platinum <0#PL:> and palladium <0#PA:> - Asian gold prices <0#PREC> - Australian precious metals prices <0#AUPREC=> - Shanghai Gold Exchange prices - Hong Kong gold exchange prices - Hong Kong bullion prices - Indian bullion prices <0#PREC-IN> - Japanese producer prices For Related News and other topics, double click on one of these codes: SPEED GUIDES This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
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