Gold rises on U.S. bailout worry, ETF at record

By Lewa Pardomuan

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold advanced on Thursday on speculative buying driven by uncertainties about when the U.S. Congress might approve a $700 billion bailout plan to help resolve turmoil in financial markets.

Record holdings in SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, also supported gold but dealers said there was a lack of new buying from investors, who had already snapped up bullion when it hit an 11-month low.

Gold was trading at $889.20 an ounce, up $8.20 an ounce or 0.93 percent from New York's notional close on

Wednesday.

Gold tumbled to $736 on Sept. 11, its weakest in nearly a year, before climbing steadily to hit a 7-week high of $908.80 on Monday. Increases in SDPR holdings reflected buying within the two-week period, when gold jumped more than $170, dealers said.

"We've just got their data now. It's not like they can release that data to us on the day the gold prices rallied. Not

the case," said Mark Pervan, an ANZ senior commodity analyst in Melbourne.

"The market at the moment is a bit at a wait-and-see stance or approach. They are looking at how particularly the U.S. financial situation unfolds. People are not prepared to buy or sell strongly," he said.