SINGAPORE, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Gold prices slipped on Monday, extending
losses from the previous session after posting the biggest weekly gain in a
month, while bullion should find support from lofty oil prices that threaten
global growth.	
    	
    FUNDAMENTALS	
    * Spot gold lost nearly half a percent to $1,772.19 an ounce by 0034
GMT, after posting a 3.3-percent gain last week.	
    * U.S. gold edged down 0.1 percent to $1,774.	
    * Brent crude oil hovered near a 10-month high above $125 a barrel
on concerns of rising tensions with Iran. A surge in oil prices, along with 
hefty liquidity injections from the European Central Bank, have raised the
spectre of a potential rise in inflation expectations.  	
    * Euro zone countries pledged on Sunday at a Group of 20 meeting of finance
leaders to reassess the strength of their bailout fund in March, which could
clear the way for other G20 countries to give more funds to the International
Monetary Fund.  	
    * Eyes are on the European Central Bank this week, which is expected to
inject nearly half a trillion euros to banks in the second allotment of the
3-year long-term refinancing operation (LTRO), to buy more time for Europe's
politicians to find a solution to the euro zone debt crisis. 	
    * Speculators raised their bullish bets in gold to the highest level in five
months during the week to Feb. 21, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading
Commission showed. 	
    * Spot platinum, which rose to a five-month high at $1,731.5 and
surged 5 percent last week, was flat at $1,707.49.	
    * South Africa's Impala Platinum had agreed to rehire thousands of
miners sacked for an illegal strike that has halted production for more than a
month at the world's biggest platinum mine, a leading union said on Saturday.
 	
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    MARKET NEWS	
    * The S&P 500 rose on Friday to close at the highest level since before the
collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, continuing a pattern of steady gains on
signs of a U.S. economic recovery. 	
    * The yen slid to a new seven-month low against the dollar in Asia on
Monday, while the euro held remarkably firm as investors continued to unwind
negative bets against the single currency ahead of a fresh injection of
liquidity by the ECB..	

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