(Updates to trends in the physical market) * Spot gold lower at $1,103.95 an ounce XAU= * London Brent crude flat at $73.11 a barrel LCOc1 * Rupee strong at 46.285 per dollar INR=IN * U.S. pending home sales for Dec 1500 GMT [MI/DIARY] MUMBAI, Feb 2 (Reuters) - India's gold buying abated on Tuesday afternoon as the yellow metal traded above the keenly-watched $1,100 an ounce level, but a stronger rupee aided sentiment, dealers said. "Demand is lagging today, there was buying until yesterday, we must have done 400-500 kgs last week," said a dealer with a state-run bank in Mumbai. International spot gold XAU= was trading at $1,103.20/1,103.95 an ounce as against 1,105.30/1,106.30 in the previous session. "People are waiting for a dip to $1,070/1,089 an ounce," said another dealer with a private bank. A stronger rupee makes the dollar-quoted gold cheaper for domestic traders. The Indian rupee trimmed some of its early gains after the dollar strengthened slightly following the Australian central bank's decision to leave interest rates unchanged. [INR/] India, historically the largest consumer of the yellow metal, imported 35-40 tonnes of gold during January 1-27, up from 9.8 tonnes in the whole of the same month last year, the head of a trade body and bank dealers said. See [ID:nSGE60Q0HS] Following were the prices being quoted by HDFC Bank in rupees in the spot market at 1:15 p.m. INBULL03: Tuesday Monday Gold .999/10 grams 16,750 16,436 Silver .999/kg 26,805 26,134 Following were prices in rupees on the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd. at 2:16 p.m. <0#MAU:>: Contract Current price Net change Apr gold 16,630 +10 Mar silver 26,042 -26 (Reporting by Siddesh Mayenkar; Editing by Sunil Nair)

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