During its Friday session gold lost its gains under pressure from a drop in ETF holdings to their lowest since late January, a firm U.S. dollar and a lacklustre physical market.

Premiums for gold bars were steady in Hong Kong and Singapore, with no signs of buying interest from China after the Lunar New Year celebration. Unrest in Egypt could underpin sentiment, but there was hardly any physical buying in Asia related to the deadly turmoil.

"There's not much going on in terms of demand in the physical market. That's why there are some stocks kept here. (People) try to sell them immediately," said Dick Poon, manager of precious metals at Heraus in Hong Kong, referring to physical supply.

"The production side and manufacturing are not back to normal after the Chinese holiday. Maybe next week. I think gold is most likely to trade in the range of $1,350 to $1,370 right now."

Spot gold shed 50 cents to $1,362.40 an ounce by 0639 GMT, well below a lifetime high around $1,430 hit in December.

Trading was thin, with Japanese investors away for a public holiday, but the price had reached an intraday high around $1,365.

The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust , said its holdings slipped to 1,225.526 tonnes by Feb. 10, their lowest since late January, from 1,226.436 tonnes on Feb. 9.

U.S. gold futures for April were steady at $1,363.3 an ounce.

Precious metals prices 0639 GMT

Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover
Spot Gold 1362.40 -0.50 -0.04 -4.02
Spot Silver 30.00 -0.19 -0.63 -2.79
Spot Platinum 1828.00 3.25 +0.18 3.42
Spot Palladium 817.75 -2.50 -0.30 2.28
TOCOM Gold 3656.00 27.00 +0.74 -1.96 16840
TOCOM Platinum 4931.00 -16.00 -0.32 5.00 4371
TOCOM Silver 80.60 0.70 +0.88 -0.49 479
TOCOM Palladium 2197.00 -3.00 -0.14 4.77 192
euro/Dollar 1.3561
Dollar/Yen 83.48

TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.