SINGAPORE, Sep 25 Gold dropped on Tuesday as investors booked profits from a rally which

SINGAPORE, Sep 25 (Reuters) Gold dropped on Tuesday as investors booked profits from a rally which had propelled the metal to its highest in nearly three decades last week.

-- Spot gold fell to $729.10/729.90 an ounce from $731.70/732.50 late in New York on Monday and off a 28-year high of $739 an ounce hit on Friday.

-- Investec Australia pegged support at $728 an ounce and resistance at $740 an ounce.

-- Japanese financial markets reopened after a public holiday. The benchmark August 2008 gold futures on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange fell 30 yen per gram to 2,716 yen to track weakness in COMEX.

-- The most-active December gold contract on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $2.0 an ounce to $737.3 an ounce on electronic trade -- off Friday's 28-year high of $747.1.

-- Dennis Wheeler, chief executive of silver and gold miner Coeur D'Alene Mines Corp , said on Monday growing demand, shrinking supply, a declining dollar and inflation concerns would boost gold and silver prices.

-- He told Reuters that silver was in ''a reasonable price range,'' under $15 an ounce.

-- The euro dipped to $1.4070 after hitting a record high of $1.4130 on Monday.

-- Silver inched up to $13.43/13.48 an ounce from $13.33/13.37 an ounce.

-- Platinum rose to $1,333/1,338 an ounce from $1,332/1,336 late in New York. Palladium was steady at $338/343 an ounce.

Precious metals prices at 0054 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover Spot Gold 729.20 -0.80 -0.11 14.71 Spot Silver 13.43 0.00 +0.00 4.51 Spot Platinum 1333.00 -6.50 -0.49 17.76 Spot Palladium 338.00 -1.40 -0.41 1.81 TOCOM Gold 2716.00 -30.00 -1.09 11.08 22366 TOCOM Platinum 4893.00 -40.00 -0.81 15.02 8895 TOCOM Silver 498.00 -6.80 -1.35 0.95 521 TOCOM Palladium 1278.00 -4.00 -0.31 1.83 113 Euro/Dollar 1.4069 Dollar/Yen 114.67 TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which is priced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce.

Reuters KK VP0727