By Clara Denina
LONDON (Reuters) - Gold prices reached their highest level in six months on Friday, benefiting from stumbling share prices hit by tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine and growth concerns in China.
The metal has gained more than 2 percent this week so far, in what would mark its sixth straight weekly rise, as investors' appetite for risk diminished due to increasing political tensions and economic troubles, which benefit gold.
Spot gold rose as much as 1.4 percent to its highest level since Sep.9 at $1,387.90 an ounce in earlier trade and was up 1 percent to $1,383.30 by 1347 GMT.
The metal is up 14 percent this year after a 28-percent tumble in 2013, which put an end to 12 straight years of price increases.
U.S. gold futures rose 0.9 percent to $1,384.40 an ounce.
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"Gold's upside has been helped by quite a lot of things happening at the same time, the U.S. and China and Ukraine," Deutsche Bank analyst Michael Lewis said.
"As for Ukraine, the impact on gold could fade quickly (once a diplomatic solution is found), whereas if structural changes happen in China the effect on gold could last longer," he added.
"But we still view the U.S. labour market and the Fed policy as the predominant driver and ... in the longer term that will reinstate the downside risk to gold."
European equity markets fell to five-week lows on heightened tensions ahead of Ukraine's weekend referendum in Crimea.
Further support for gold was related to worries over China's economy. Data on Thursday showed growth slowed in the first two months of the year.
FED TAPER
The market was awaiting the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy meeting on March 18-19. The central bank is expected to announce another $10 billion cut to its bond-buying stimulus.
A series of U.S. economic data showing that growth has been hurt by severe cold weather has recently hit the dollar, which fell 0.1 percent against a basket of currencies after weak U.S. producer prices on Friday.
Global uncertainties sent investors looking for gold, with holdings in SPDR Gold Trust - the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund - rising 2.1 tonnes to 813.30 tonnes on Thursday.
While money flowing into gold-backed exchange-traded funds has increased, reflecting confidence in the metal's outlook, physical demand has quietened as higher prices has put off buyers - making some cautious about how long the rally can last.
"While gold's push higher is attracting greater investment demand, higher prices may be cooling emerging market physical appetite," HSBC said in a note.
Demand in China, the world's biggest bullion consumer, has fallen off, with prices in Shanghai at a discount to spot prices. Prices on the Shanghai Gold Exchange were about $4 an ounce lower than London prices, compared with premiums of over $20 earlier this year.
Silver followed gold's moves, with a 2.5 percent increase to $21.66 an ounce.
Platinum rose 0.3 percent to $1,476.49 an ounce, while palladium rose 0.8 percent to $780.50 an ounce.
(Additional reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi in Singapore; Editing by William Hardy and Pravin Char)