PRECIOUS-Gold set for biggest loss in 5 months on US stimulus fears

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold was headed for its biggest monthly drop since June as a recovering U.S. economy prompted investors to shift money to rallying equities, amid bets on an end to easy central bank money.

Gold has shed 6 percent for the month and has lost more than a quarter so far this year, which puts it on track to post its first annual loss in 13 years.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold was unchanged at $1,242.91 an ounce by 0020 GMT, after closing 0.5 percent higher on Thursday, when activity was relatively thin as U.S. financial markets were shut for the Thanksgiving holiday.

* Buying from China, set to become the world's biggest consumer of gold this year, picked up this week as prices continued to be under pressure. On Thursday, traded volumes of 99.99 percent purity gold on the Shanghai Gold Exchange hit their highest in seven weeks.

* Russian bank VTB said on Thursday it had begun to export gold and silver bullion to India to expand its business in the Asia-Pacific region.

* Zimbabwe is willing to let foreign-owned platinum mining firms own majority shares in their local operations if they build a refinery in the country, the mines minister said on Thursday.

MARKET NEWS

* Asian shares were steady on Friday, with Japanese stocks poised for another strong session as the yen languished at a four-year trough against the euro and six-month low versus the dollar.

DATA/EVENTS

0500 Japan Construction orders

0700 Germany Retail sales

0745 France Producer prices

1000 Euro zone Inflation

1000 Euro zone Unemployment rate

1200 India Q2 GDP

PRICES AT 0020 GMT

Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg

Spot gold 1242.91 -0.63 -0.05 -25.78

Spot silver 19.7 0.01 0.05 -34.94

Spot platinum 1353.75 -1.65 -0.12 -11.81

Spot palladium 717.3 1.1 0.15 3.66

Comex gold Dec3 1242.9 5.1 0.41 -25.83

Comex silver Dec3 19.685 0.052 0.26 -35.05

Euro 1.36

DXY 80.587

COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Ed Davies)