By Risa Maeda TOKYO (Reuters) - Gold steadied above $1,110 an ounce on Thursday, trimming earlier gains, as strong growth data from China increased concern that Beijing may rein in the country's rapid expansion and sent the dollar higher. The allure of gold as a hedge against a weakening dollar was sapped as the euro fell to a five-month low below $1.4080 after the Chinese data, while the dollar index rose to its highest in four months. The data showed China easily beat its 2009 growth target, with its gross domestic product expanding 10.7 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier. Gold's retreat weighed on the prices of the platinum group metals, platinum and palladium, but they mostly held onto recent gains, supported by expectations of continued money inflows. Platinum and palladium, both valued for their use in automobile catalytic converters, have been trading at multi-month highs after the launch of U.S.-based exchange-traded funds backed by the metals this month. "Gold has taken a blow from the falling euro. But (platinum group metals) are showing relatively solid footing. They look healthy especially after a rebound in platinum from a trough below $1,600 last night," said Kaname Gokon, deputy general manager at a Japanese commodity brokerage Okato Shoji Co's research section. Spot gold was at $1,111.10 an ounce as of 0254 GMT, flat from New York's notional close. It stayed above Wednesday's low of $1,107, its lowest since January 4, as pent-up buying underpinned the downside, traders said. U.S. gold futures for February delivery were at $1,116.10 an ounce, up 0.3 percent. Spot palladium rose as high as $471.25 per ounce, its highest since late June 2008, before trimming its gains, in line with a fall in gold. It stood at at $469.75, up 1 percent from New York. Spot platinum was at $1,620 per ounce, down 0.1 percent from New York's $1,622.50. On Wednesday, it rose as high as $1,654, a 17-month high, before reversing the gains to hit a trough of $1,582.50. High lease rates currently are a good indicator of how strong investors' appetite is for PGMs, said a manager at a Japanese trading company. "Lease rates for platinum and palladium started rising significantly a day before the launch of the U.S.-based ETFs," the manager said, adding that lease rates for the two metals are now around 2 percent. That is compared with gold's three-month lease rates around 0.05 percent. Underlining slowing investment demand in gold, the holdings of the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, remained unchanged at 1,111.922 tonnes on Wednesday from the previous day.

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