By Jan Harvey

LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Gold recovered early losses on Wednesday to edge higher after stocks came under pressure from renewed concerns over the euro zone economy, though caution ahead of a European Central Bank meeting knocked the euro lower.

Platinum and palladium held near 17-month highs, meanwhile, benefiting from rising appetite for industrial metals as confidence in the growth outlook improved, and on concerns over the supply outlook from major producers South Africa and Russia.

Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,674.60 an ounce at 1306 GMT, while U.S. gold futures for December delivery were up $2.80 an ounce at $1,676.30.

The precious metal is flat from the start of the year, struggling for traction as a run of better economic data boosted the appeal of assets more highly geared to the economic cycle, such as stocks and industrial commodities.

'Certainly the stronger performance of more conventional assets, certainly equity markets, has taken the shine off gold,' Deutsche Bank analyst Daniel Brebner said.

'Safe-haven assets have performed fairly poorly as expectations of growth have improved... and a lot of those debt-related risks have for the time being faded into the background. In that kind of environment, there is no signficant motivation for gold prices to rise on the basis of investment demand.'

European stocks surrendered early gains to ease 0.2 percent at midday as the previous session's tentative recovery lost steam, with euro zone banks sliding on renewed concerns over the health of the region's economy.

The Japanese currency neared a three-year low on Wednesday on expectations that a new Bank of Japan governor could ease policy. That helped send the most active gold futures contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM), currently December , to record highs for a fifth day at 5,073 yen a gram.

The euro fell 0.5 percent agains the dollar. ECB president Mario Draghi is likely to face tough questions on Thursday about the impact of the euro's recent appreciation on growth and inflation speculation, although the bank is unlikely to contemplate an interest rate cut.

'Investors remain unconvinced gold is capable of replicating its decade-long robust performance through to 2012, given recent improvement to global risk sentiment and rallying equity markets,' VTB Capital said in a note.

'Bullion's correlation to the broader equity market has weakened significantly in the past month.'

INDIAN CENTRAL BANK MULLS GOLD IMPORT CURBS

The Reserve Bank of India said on Wednesday it could limit gold imports by banks in 'extreme circumstances', as the world's biggest consumer of gold battles a record-high current account deficit.

India, which imports about 900 tonnes of gold a year with 60 percent of that through banks, last month hiked the import duty on gold again, to 6 percent from 4 percent.

Customs data showed yesterday that gold flows from Hong Kong into China, which is vying with India as the leading buyer of bullion, hit record levels last year.

'Some caution is warranted when making direct links to underlying demand,' UBS said in a note. 'Nevertheless, Hong Kong trade statistics, considered together with other indicators such as activity on the SGE, still paint a robust demand story out of China towards the end of 2012 through to early this year.'

The positive economic data that has undermined gold fuelled interest in the platinum group metals, which are chiefly used in autocatalysts and highly exposed to car demand. Platinum and palladium prices both hit multi-month highs on Wednesday.

Spot platinum hit a near 17-month peak at $1,740 an ounce and was up 1.4 percent at $1,728.99 an ounce, while spot palladium was up 0.6 percent at $768.22 an ounce, having earlier reached its strongest in 17 months at $769.

As well as expectations for a pick-up in demand, both have benefited from anticipation that supply from South Africa and, in palladium's case, Russia will be curtailed this year.

Silver was down 0.1 percent at $31.74 an ounce.

(Reporting by Jan Harvey; editing by William Hardy) Keywords: MARKETS PRECIOUS/

(jan.harvey@thomsonreuters.com)(+44)(0)(207 542 7744)(Reuters Messaging: jan.harvey.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)

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