Gold climbs, near 1-week peak

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold ticked up on Monday, holding near its highest level in more than a week, as a rebound in prices from a 2-year trough failed to curb investor appetite for the precious metal.

FUNDAMENTALS

Spot gold had risen $1.15 an ounce to $1,463.65 by 0025 GMT, having posted its biggest weekly gain in three months last week. Gold plunged to around $1,321 on April 16, its lowest in more than two years, in a sell-off that surprised ardent gold investors and bulls.

U.S. gold for June delivery stood at $1,463.20 an ounce, up $9.60.

Holdings of the largest gold-backed exchange-traded-fund (ETF), New York's SPDR Gold Trust GLD, dipped 0.66 percent on Friday from Thursday, while those of the largest silver-backed ETF, New York's iShares Silver Trust SLV, climbed 0.25 percent in the same period.

Hedge funds and money managers trimmed their net longs in gold futures and options in the week to April 23 as investors reduced bullish bets, a report by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) showed on Friday.

MARKET NEWS

The dollar dropped on Friday to its lowest against the yen in more than a week after the Bank of Japan left policy unchanged and data showed the U.S. economy expanded more slowly than expected in the first quarter.

U.S. stocks dipped in thin volume on Friday, though the market had a strong week overall despite a mixed bag of earnings and weak economic figures.

(Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan; Editing by Joseph Radford)