Gold slips from $1,300 on profit-taking ahead of ECB

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold eased on Thursday, moving further away from a five-month high above $1,300 an ounce reached in the previous session, hurt by profit-taking ahead of a key European Central Bank meeting.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold fell 0.2 percent to $1,291 an ounce by 0027 GMT. The metal reached $1,305, its highest since August, on Wednesday.

* After a quick climb of about 9 percent this month, traders are adjusting positions ahead of the ECB policy meet.

* The metal has rallied on safe-haven bids from political and economic uncertainties in Europe, along with concerns over the health of the global economy.

* The ECB is poised to announce a plan on Thursday to buy government bonds, resorting to its last big policy tool for breathing life into the flagging euro zone economy and fending off deflation.

* The stimulus measures should increase demand for bullion, but investors are cautious about the impact of such a move on the euro and the dollar.

* The worries were reflected in SPDR Gold Trust, the world's top gold-backed exchange-traded fund, which saw outflows of 0.24 percent to 740.45 tonnes on Wednesday.

* In other industry news, Indian gold importers are offering a discount of up to $16 an ounce versus London prices, the widest in 17 months, as jewellers curtail purchases ahead of a possible cut in the import duty.

* The New Year's rally in gold stocks offers a respite for the beaten-down sector, but it masks deep-seated problems of bloated debt, weak growth prospects and overvalued assets that will emerge when miners post year-end results in coming weeks.

* Chile's environmental regulator is re-evaluating penalties on Barrick Gold Corp's Pascua-Lama project, a process that could include cancelling the embattled mine's permit, the head of the government body told a local daily newspaper.

MARKET NEWS

* The dollar slipped against the euro on Wednesday after some traders cut back on risk by reversing long-standing bets against the euro.

* The Canadian dollar languished at its lowest in nearly six years early on Thursday, having suffered a massive drop after the Bank of Canada stunned markets by cutting interest rates.

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