Gold supported, but market still on defensive

TOKYO, May 28 (Reuters) Gold rose on Monday after a rebound in New York, but investment funds were still reluctant to take buy positions due to the dollar's strength in the last week.

-- Cash gold was trading at $655.60/656.10 an ounce, slightly higher from $655.35/655.85 in late New York on Friday.

-- U.S. gold futures advanced on Friday after the previous session's sharp losses, helped by buying following options expirations, a weaker dollar and recovering copper prices.

-- Japanese gold futures advanced in line with the recovery in New York on Friday.

-- But the technical trend was bearish after the key Tokyo Commodity Exchange gold futures contract fell as far as 2,567 yen a gram on Friday, down more than 4 percent from this month's high of 2,684 yen hit on May 8.

-- The key April 2008 TOCOM gold was at 2,595 yen, up 14 or 0.5 percent from Friday's close.

-- Technical resistance for April TOCOM gold is seen at theseven-day moving average of around 2,600 yen and the 14-day average of 2,614 yen.

-- Platinum advanced to $1,273/1,278 an ounce from $1,266/1,270 in New York.

-- Europe-based ETF Securities said that it had no plans to list its new platinum fund, the world's first, in the U.S. market and said another firm has dropped the idea of launching a similar product in the United States. [ID:nL25283729] Precious metals prices at 0021 GMT Last Net Change Pct Move Turnover (lots) TOCOM Gold 2595.00 14.00 +0.54 6403 TOCOM Platinum 4918.00 4.00 +0.08 3141 TOCOM Silver 507.00 3.30 +0.66 133 TOCOM Palladium 1459.00 8.00 +0.55 57 Spot Gold 655.60 Spot Platinum 1273.00 Spot Silver 12.95 Spot Palladium 364.00 Change so far in 2007 Metal Latest bid End prev year Pct Move TOCOM Gold 2595.00 2445.00 +6.13 TOCOM Platinum 4918.00 4254.00 +15.61 TOCOM Silver 507.00 493.30 +2.78 TOCOM Palladium 1459.00 1255.00 +16.25 Spot Gold 655.60 636.10 +3.07 Spot Platinum 1273.00 1132.00 +12.46 Spot Silver 12.95 12.85 +0.78 Spot Palladium 364.00 332.00 +9.64 Euro/Dollar $1.3446 Dollar/Yen 121.72 TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except for silver which is in yen per 10 grams, spot prices in $ per ounce.

REUTERS CS SBA PM0620