Gold gains as dollar dips

LONDON, Apr 04 (Reuters): Gold rose nearly one per cent on Wednesday as the dollar dipped and share markets faltered after China retaliated in kind to a U.S. move to slap tariffs on $50 billion worth of its imports, raising trade war jitters.

Beijing said after Chinese markets had closed that it would impose additional tariffs on $50 billion worth of U.S. imports ranging from cars, chemicals and corn to whisky, cigars and tobacco.

The dent in risk appetite sucked some strength out of the dollar, making dollar-priced gold cheaper for non-U.S. investors and increasing the appeal of gold as a safe haven asset in times of geopolitical or economic turmoil.

But capping gold's upside were signs of still steady global economic growth, with a host of manufacturing survey's (PMIs) in many regions showing some slowing, but from lofty levels.

"Political (trade war) factors are offsetting the negative factors (for gold) of a generally improving U.S. and global economy. We think gold is heading upwards largely because we have a weaker dollar view, but we think the range is going to hold for a while," said Matthew Turner, commodities strategist at Macquarie.