* Russia, Turkey raised gold reserves in March - IMF
* Coming up: U.S. Weekly jobless claims at 1230 GMT
(Updates throughout, changes dateline from SINGAPORE)
By Clara Denina
LONDON, April 25 (Reuters) - Gold climbed to its highest in 10 days on Thursday, boosted by a weaker dollar, firm prices in other commodities and by an ninth straight session supported by demand for the physical metal.
Traders also cited support from central bank buying after International Monetary Fund data showed that Russia and Turkey had continued to add to their holdings in March.
But daily outflows from exchange-traded funds showed no sign of abating, suggesting that sagging investor confidence is unlikely to be restored any time soon after last week's sell-off.
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"Physical demand is very strong at these prices, but a lot of the rally that we are seeing is also short-covering coming through," Standard Bank analyst Walter de Wet said.
Short-covering occurs when traders are forced to buy an asset they had agreed to sell at a future date in expectations its price would fall.
"We could go through $1,450, but it may be difficult to sustain that level as we continue to see, when the United States comes in, a bit of selling pressure," de Wet said.
"The weaker dollar may be helping, but the historical inverse correlation between the currency and gold has been patchy in the past few days."
The dollar was weaker against the euro and yen, hurt by a batch of soft data that have raised concerns about the pace of economic recovery in the United States.
A weaker greenback makes dollar-priced assets such as gold cheaper for holders of other currencies.
European shares were little changed after four straight sessions of gains, due to disappointing earnings reports, while copper hit a one-week high, and crude oil was steady above $101 per barrel.
The market awaited a string of other significant economic data in the United States, where softness would raise hopes that the Federal Reserve will keep its bond-buyng programme through 2014.
Accommodative monetary policies favour gold, because low interest rates encourage investors to put money into non-interest-bearing assets
"We have a few figures coming up - initial jobless claims and more importantly GDP - which will be closely monitored," Marex Spectron said in a note.
"In the absence of anything damaging, I would expect gold to remain supported, but with the upside limited for the time being."
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ETFS SELL, CENTRAL BANKS BUY
Holdings of the largest gold-backed ETF, New York's SPDR Gold Trust
Russia and Turkey raised their gold reserves in March, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday, which was ahead of the spectacular plunge in prices this month that shocked ardent gold investors and bulls.
Gold had come under pressure earlier this month after the European Central Bank and IMF asked Cyprus to sell reserves to raise around 400 million euros ($523 million) as part of a bailout deal, leading to speculation other indebted euro zone countries could follow suit.
Meanwhile, physical demand has helped gold bounce from a two-year trough of $1,321.35 an ounce hit last week. Premiums for gold bars soared to multi-year highs in Asia on low supplies, with dealers in top consumer India expecting a surge in imports this month.
Among other precious metals, silver
(Additional reporting by Lewa Pardomuan in Singapore; Editing by Jane Baird)
((clara.denina@thomsonreuters.com)(+44-0207-5429-420)(Reuters Messaging: clara.denina.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: MARKETS PRECIOUS/
