Gold extends gains, buoyed by Indian festival demand

(Reuters) - Gold prices extended gains on Wednesday after touching nearly 3-week highs in the previous session, buoyed by rising physical demand ahead of India's late-October festival season.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold > was up about 0.1 percent at $1274.76 an ounce at 0054 GMT. It hit its strongest since Oct. 5 on Tuesday at $1,276.67.

* U.S. gold futures rose nearly 0.2 percent to $1275.70 an ounce.

* Gold is a traditional gift during two of the most important Hindu festivals, Dhanteras and Diwali, which will be celebrated at the end of the month.

* U.S. stocks fell on disappointing earnings reports on Tuesday, while the U.S. dollar slipped from multi-month highs after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney cast doubt on expectations for more monetary stimulus.

 

* The European Central Bank is aware of the growing costs to the financial sector of its ultra-loose monetary policy and would rather not have to keep negative interest rates for too long, ECB President Mario Draghi said on Tuesday.

* A potential U.S. interest rate hike in December will have limited impact on the yuan, the People's Bank of China chief economist Ma Jun told reporters on Tuesday.

* U.S. home prices rose 5.1 percent in the year to August as home buyers competed for fewer properties, helped by low mortgage interest rates, some wage growth and low unemployment.

* Russia and Kazakhstan continued to boost their gold reserves in September, data from the International Monetary Fund showed on Tuesday.

* SPDR Gold Trust , the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings rose 0.34 percent to 956.83 tonnes on Tuesday from 953.56 tonnes on Monday.

(Reporting by Apeksha Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Joseph Radford)