By Veronica Brown and Clara Denina
LONDON (Reuters) - Gold rose on Thursday in Europe after volatile Asian trade saw prices slide towards two-year lows hit earlier in the week, with strong physical buying set against exits from exchange-traded funds.
The sharp drop in prices has triggered a spate of buying in gold bars, coins and nuggets in Asia, while U.S. gold coins have flown off dealers' shelves.
But traders said most remained unnerved by the fund exodus, due to worries on potential central bank sales sparked by a planned disposal by Cyprus and concern that U.S. monetary stimulus may be reduced.
Holdings of the world's largest exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust, dropped to their lowest in three years, as persistent worries over global growth sapped broad investor confidence.
Spot gold, which has plunged around 18 percent this year, marked a session low of $1,339.86 an ounce. It had recovered to $1,392.76 by 1437 GMT, up 1.1 percent on the day.
Prices hit a 2-year low at $1,321.35 earlier this week after the biggest two-day drop in 30 years.
"The downward momentum has stabilised over yesterday and today, but we can't say for sure if that's abated or we will see more financial investors leaving the gold market and volatility is likely to remain very high in the next few sessions," Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann said.
"The current support comes from exceptionally higher retail demand for coins and bars in all major markets including Asia, the United States and Europe."
U.S. gold futures for June delivery on COMEX were also up 0.7 percent at $1,392.60. Investors were looking forward to the latest CFTC trade data that will provide a clearer picture of speculative activity in the week to Tuesday 16 April.
"We should see that a lot of long positions have been closed," Briesemann said.
UNEASE
"You can see that sentiment is very fragile, very weak. The downtrend may not be over and U.S. investors have kept selling over the last two days," said Joyce Liu, an investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.
Traders in London said the atmosphere was overwhelmingly uneasy. "You just can't get a feeling for it, you are so nervous as when the price hits a certain level, electronic trading kicks in and makes the market even more volatile - it just gaps lower," one said.
Gold has ignored tension in the Korean peninsula and investors are increasingly convinced the U.S. Federal Reserve will soon end its bullion-friendly bond buying programme, which could ease inflationary pressure.
The precious metal recorded its biggest ever daily fall in dollar terms on Monday, catching gold bulls, speculators and veteran investors by surprise.
Cyprus's plan to sell excess gold reserves to raise around 400 million euros led to speculation other indebted euro zone countries could follow suit.
Premiums for gold bars in Hong Kong were at $1.90 to $2.00 an ounce to the spot prices in London, their highest since early last year. Premiums in Singapore and Tokyo were also at multi-months highs.
Other precious metals rode higher on gold's gains, with silver up 0.4 percent to $23.37, platinum rising 0.3 percent to $1,424.49 and palladium 0.4 percent firmer at $665.
(Additonal reporting by Lewa Pardomuan in Singapore; editing by James Jukwey)
