PRECIOUS-Spot gold flat; Asia's physical demand underpins

News

* Slovak vote unlikely to dampen hopes on debt crisis resolution

* Asia physical gold premiums stay high

* Spot gold neutral in range of $1,653-$1,684 -technicals

* Coming up: Euro zone industrial production, Aug; 0900 GMT (Adds comments, details; updates prices)

By Rujun Shen

SINGAPORE, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Spot gold traded flat on Wednesday, as investors waited for cues from further developments in the euro zone's debt crisis, and robust physical demand in Asia underpinned the sentiment.

Slovakia's parliament voted against the expansion of the euro zone's rescue fund, but the move is unlikely to dampen confidence the euro zone will come up with solutions to its debt crisis.

"Slovakia is not a big enough player to get in the way," said a Singapore-based trader.

"The will in the euro zone is gravitating towards the idea that they will have to do whatever it take to prevent contagion. Eventually we will see some kind of pan-European deal cut."

International lenders said they were likely to grant a loan to Greece next month, buying time for a broader response, after Germany and France pledged to craft new steps to resolve the debt crisis by the end of the month.

Spot gold was flat at $1,665.49 by 0358 GMT, after losing 0.8 percent in the previous session.

U.S. gold edged up 0.4 percent to $1,667.20.

Technical analysis suggested that gold is likely to be trapped in the range of $1,653 and $1,684 in the day, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.

PREMIUMS HIGH ON PHYSICALS' SHORT SUPPLY

Premiums in Singapore remained at high levels due to short supply of physical materials.

"The premiums is about $2.50, as most dealers are still filling the orders that were pre-booked a week or two ago," said the dealer. "The buying has slowed down a bit in the past two days, but the Thais are still looking at buying on dips."

Holdings of the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust , stood at 1,227.994 tonnes by Oct. 11, little changed from the end of September and down 4 percent so far this year, while spot gold prices rose 17 percent during the period.

"Stabilization in the investment indications could be backstopped by support in physical demand, where the end of the Chinese holiday last week has created recovery. Similarly, Indian demand is anticipated to increase soon due to the end of a favorable monsoon season," said MF Global analyst Tom Pawlicki in a research note.

Though the sentiment in commodities and equities has been lifted by renewed hopes on resolving the debt crisis by European policy makers, concerns about slowing global economic growth still hang over the markets.

"The theme of China being the engine driving the entire world growth is so firmly entrenched in people's expectations right now," said the Singapore trader.

"Any indication there is some slowdown is going to cause a real stir and send reverberations throughout more liquid markets, definitely commodities market."

In a sign of such worries, the Chinese currency weakened sharply in the offshore market as companies continued to unwind their long yuan positions.

The Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index announced its 2012 re-weightings, adding Brent crude oilto its components while cutting the weightings of gold and silver.

Precious metals prices 0358 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume Spot Gold 1665.49 0.06 +0.00 17.33 Spot Silver 32.02 -0.14 -0.44 3.76 Spot Platinum 1529.24 14.94 +0.99 -13.48 Spot Palladium 605.47 3.89 +0.65 -24.27 TOCOM Gold 4113.00 -18.00 -0.44 10.30 31330 TOCOM Platinum 3804.00 21.00 +0.56 -18.99 9270 TOCOM Silver 78.30 0.10 +0.13 -3.33 343 TOCOM Palladium 1511.00 3.00 +0.20 -27.94 170 COMEX GOLD DEC1 1667.20 6.20 +0.37 17.29 7720 COMEX SILVER DEC1 32.06 0.06 +0.18 3.60 1893 Euro/Dollar 1.3613 Dollar/Yen 76.68 TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce. COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months