Gold slips for third day on stronger equities

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold fell for a third session in a row on Tuesday, hurt by a stronger dollar and equities, as well as profit-taking after recent sharp gains to a five-month high.

Spot gold eased 0.5 percent to $1,274.43 an ounce by 0044 GMT. The metal fell 1.6 percent in the previous two sessions, after hitting a five-month high of $1,306.20 on Thursday.

Bullion has gained 9 percent this month, after two annual declines, sparking some profit taking by traders.

Global stock indexes edged up on Monday on confidence in the European Central Bank's money-printing program announced last week.

Bullion had gained initially on Monday as Greek leftist leader Alexis Tsipras was set to become prime minister of the first euro zone government openly opposed to bailout conditions imposed by the European Union and International Monetary Fund during the economic crisis.

Safe-haven bids helped gold on concerns that Greece could exit the euro zone but global equities strengthened, relieved that European markets had weathered Greece's election outcome without much disruption.

News on central bank gold purchases and inflows into the world's top gold-backed exchange-traded fund failed to lend support to the metal on Tuesday.

Russia raised its gold reserves for a ninth straight month in December as the country continued to add to the fifth-biggest gold holdings in the world, data from the International Monetary Fund showed on Tuesday. Netherlands and Kazakhstan also added to reserves.

SPDR Gold Trust, the top gold ETF, said its holdings rose 0.24 percent to 743.44 tonnes on Monday.

Investors were now eyeing the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting that kicks off on Tuesday for clues about the U.S. central bank's monetary policy.

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Richard Pullin)