* Gold climbs back towards Friday's peak of $1,296.11/oz
* Dollar hits fresh 18-month low versus the yen
* GRAPHIC-2016 asset returns: http://reut.rs/1WAiOSC
(Updates throughout, changes dateline, previous SINGAPORE)
By Jan Harvey
LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - Gold rose to a fresh 15-month high
on Monday, closing in on the $1,300 resistance level as fresh
weakness in the dollar lent support, but moves were muted in
holiday-thinned trade.
Many Asian markets and London were closed on Monday for
national holidays, dampening momentum in the precious metal,
which posted its biggest weekly rally since early February last
week, up more than 5 percent.
That was chiefly driven by weakness in the dollar, which
posted its worst week since 2008 versus the Japanese yen after
the Bank of Japan unexpectedly opted against further monetary
easing. The U.S. unit stayed on the back foot on Monday.
Spot gold XAU= was up 0.4 percent at $1,299.31 an ounce at
0935 GMT, off an earlier peak of $1,299.90, its highest since
January last year.
"The dollar was the reason behind the spike up (last week),
and we broke all the important levels on the upside," Afshin
Nabavi, head of trading at MKS said. "$1,285 was a huge number,
and we got through $1,290 pretty easily. $1,300 is going to be a
very important one, so we shouldn't go through that easily."
"The dollar is very weak, especially against the yen, and
the white metals all look very healthy, so maybe on the back of
that gold may get a bit of a follow through," he said. "We
should have a bit of back and forth between $1,290 and $1,300,
but I think we're heading for new numbers on the upside."
European shares were down 0.1 percent, while the dollar
index .DXY , which measures the greenback against a basket of
currencies, fell for a sixth session to hit an eight-month low.
Data on Friday showed hedge funds and money managers cut
their net long position in gold futures and options in the week
to last Tuesday.
"Even though net long positions in gold were reduced
slightly in the week to 26 April, we believe that speculative
financial investors have been driving the gold price up
significantly of late," Commerzbank (DE:CBKG) said in a note.
U.S. gold futures GCv1 for June delivery were up $11.10 an
ounce at $1,301.60.
Silver XAG= was flat at $17.81 an ounce. The gold/silver
ratio, which measures the number of silver ounces needed to buy
an ounce of gold, steadied at 72.9, off Friday's 6-1/2-month low
of 72.2.
Platinum XPT= was up 0.2 percent at $1,076.10 an ounce,
while palladium XPD= was down 0.1 percent at $624.10 an ounce.
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GRAPHIC-2016 asset returns: http://reut.rs/1WAiOSC
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