Gold falls further as higher yields prop up dollar

(Reuters) - Gold extended its fall on Wednesday as the dollar remained strong on rising treasury yields, while investors awaited the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve's last policy meeting for cues on the pace of interest rate hikes this year.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold had slipped by 0.1 percent to $1,328.65 an ounce at 0130 GMT and was down for a fourth straight session. Prices fell 1.3 percent on Tuesday, in their biggest one-day percentage decline since Dec. 7, 2017.

* U.S. gold futures were down 0.01 percent at $1,331.1 per ounce.

* The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was up 0.03 percent at 89.742. It rose 0.7 percent in the previous session, its biggest one-day gain in two weeks.

* The Fed will release the minutes of its Jan. 30-31 policy meeting on Wednesday. The meeting was held during last month's drop in equity markets and investors are interested in its response to the market gyrations as well as the rate outlook.

* Treasury yields rose overnight with the benchmark 10-year yield crawling back to near a four-year peak as investors made room for this week's $258 billion deluge of new government debt.

* The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday sold record amounts of three-month and six-month bills at the highest interest rates for these maturities at auctions in more than nine years, Treasury data showed.

* Russia's gold reserves stood at 59.7 million troy ounces as of the start of February, the central bank said on Tuesday.

* Russia raised gold holdings by 18.911 tonnes to 1,857.73 tonnes in Jan. 2018, according to IMF data.

* SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings rose 0.39 percent to 827.79 tonnes on Tuesday from 824.54 tonnes on Friday.

* Foreign-owned banks, insurance companies and law firms could be locked out of Tanzania's mining sector as part of tough new regulations that aim to limit foreign ownership of mining-related activity.

(Reporting by Eileen Soreng in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)