Gold slips on profit-taking; set for second weekly drop

By Vijaykumar Vedala and Sethuraman N R

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Gold fell on Friday as investors cashed in profits following a 1.2 percent gain in the previous session on improving demand for the metal on signs U.S. and European central banks will continue loose monetary policies in the medium term.

"We have seen little selling coming into the market which is understandable given gold is about $20 higher from the lows traded in Asia on Thursday," MKS Group trader Jason Cerisola said, adding that gold has very good support at $1,310 level.

Spot gold edged down 0.3 percent at $1,326.38 an ounce at 0700 GMT. Bullion is set for an about 1 percent decline for the week.

U.S. gold slipped 0.4 percent at $1,326.30 an ounce.

The U.S. Federal Reserve will wait until the fourth quarter before raising interest rates, likely in December after the presidential election, according to a Reuters poll which once again showed subdued inflation expectations.

The ECB on Thursday held rates at record lows as it seeks to revive growth and inflation with cheap credit to the economy. It left the door open to more policy stimulus, highlighting "great" uncertainty and abundant risks to the economic outlook.

"The possibility of more easing from the ECB is supportive (for gold), as is current Fed policy," HSBC analyst James Steel said in a note.

Spot gold may retest a support at $1,313 per ounce, as its bounce caused by this barrier could have more or less completed, Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao said.

"We are going through a bout of voidness in post the Brexit referendum where some liquidation of recent decisions have certainly weighed on gold prices," ANZ analyst Daniel Hynes said.

"But everything else is still very conducive for the growth of investments (in gold). Once we just watch out for any short-term positioning that we saw coming just after the referendum, we will continue to see support for gold prices."

Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.22 percent to 963.14 tonnes on Thursday. [GOL/ETF]

Palladium, which touched its highest since late October 2015 on Thursday, was heading for its fifth straight week of gains. It dipped 0.4 percent to $679.95.

Silver, which hit a near two-week low on Thursday, was down 0.4 percent to $19.68 an ounce.

Platinum was down 0.2 percent to $1,095.90.

(Reporting By Nallur Sethuraman and Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Sunil Nair)