Gold edges up as Greece hopes lift sentiment

* Gold ETF holdings rise to record high
* Spot gold could rebound to $1,712/oz - technicals
* Coming up: U.S. jobless claims, weekly; 1330 GMT

 SINGAPORE, March 8 (Reuters) - Gold edged higher on Thursday, extending gains into a second session, as fears about a messy default for Greece eased after signs it may be able to secure a crucial debt swap deal. 
    Gold has been recuperating from a selloff earlier in the week, together with the euro and equities, after promising U.S. jobs data and hopes that Greece will complete a crucial bond swap deal.   
    Spot gold edged up 0.2 percent to $1,688.70 an ounce by 0720 GMT, standing above the 200-day moving average of around $1,678. Gold gained 0.6 percent on Wednesday following a 2-percent slide in the previous session. 
    U.S. gold gained 0.3 percent to $1,689.50.      Expectations that central banks will continue to promote growth by maintaining easy monetary policy also helped buoy gold, even though the sterilised bond buying under consideration by the U.S. Federal Reserve, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, in itself might diminish gold's appeal as an inflation
hedge.  
    "Central banks are expected to take up the role of the main agent of stimulus, since distressed governments can't provide any help on the fiscal front," said a Singapore-based trader. 
    "I still see a lot of long positioning out there."      Holdings in the gold-backed exchange-traded funds  hit a record high, and gained 269,000 ounces since last Wednesday, when gold prices collapsed 6 percent after U.S. Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke disappointed investors by not referring to any further monetary easing.      "That's a good sign, as investors appear to think it is a good opportunity to get their hands on gold," said Dominic Schnider, head of commodity research at UBS Wealth Management in Singapore.      Physical demand also started to pick up after prices dipped below $1,700, he added.      Spot gold could rebound towards $1,712 an ounce during the day, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.  
     
     
    Gold is traditionally viewed as a safe haven asset that benefits during political and economic turmoil, but in the past few months gold has largely moved in tandem with riskier assets as the financial distress threatens liquidity in the market.   "When equities drop, the pool of available funds for investing in commodities will shrink and gold will be in a bad
position to compete for investors cash because its sticker price is much higher," said the trader.      "Gold is a very risky asset. People who look at it as a safe haven are missing out one thing -- when gold becomes volatile, it becomes much more volatile than currency or bond markets."       On Friday, investors will await the key U.S. non-farm payrolls data for cues on whether the Fed is likely to launch any stimulus measures soon. China's January inflation data and industrial output data due Friday will also be closely watched, as investors gauge the pace of the world's second-largest economy. the world's two largest platinum producers said on Wednesday they were not affected by a 1-day nationwide strike in South
Africa that has brought the country's gold mines to a halt and also hit the coal sector.   Spot platinum gained 0.9 percent to $1,639.99, off a 2-1/2-week low below $1,700 hit earlier this week. 
     
   Precious metals prices 0720 GMT
  Metal             Last    Change  Pct chg  YTD pct chg    Volume
  Spot Gold        1688.70    3.94   +0.23      7.99
  Spot Silver        33.65    0.27   +0.81     21.52
  Spot Platinum    1639.99   14.50   +0.89     17.73
  Spot Palladium    682.80    2.00   +0.29      4.64
  COMEX GOLD APR2  1689.50    5.60   +0.33      7.83        13587
  COMEX SILVER MAY2  33.70    0.12   +0.34     20.72         2164
  Euro/Dollar       1.3172
  Dollar/Yen         81.29
  COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months
  

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Greek dodges debt default as bond swap approved

ATHENS • Greece secured an overwhelming acceptance of a bond swap offer to private creditors and beat its own most optimistic forecasts, a senior official said late Thursday after the deadline expired on a deal needed to avoid a chaotic debt default.

A government official said take-up on the offer was around 95% an hour before the offer closed at 8 p.m. GMT with responses still coming in.

The biggest sovereign debt restructuring in history will see bondholders accept losses of 74% on the value of their investments in a deal that will cut more than ¤100-billion ($131.5-billion) from Greece’s crippling public debt.

Preliminary results from the offer are expected to be announced officially at 6 a.m. GMT Friday and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos will hold a news conference before a call with eurozone finance ministers in the afternoon.

After initial fears that the deal could fail, pitching Greece and the eurozone into fresh crisis, the unexpectedly strong result may mean Athens can avoid enforcing the exchange on recalcitrant holdouts.

The government had been expected to activate so-called collective-action clauses (CACs) on all ¤177-billion worth of bonds regulated under Greek law.

That would potentially trigger payouts on the credit default swaps (CDS) that some investors held on the bonds, an event which would have unknown consequences for the market.

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