SINGAPORE (Commodity Online) : Gold prices eased below $1141 an ounce in Asian trade Friday mainly after the dollar showed signs of recovery.

Spot gold was seen trading at $1,140.50 per ounce at 11.30 a.m Singapore time compared to New York's notional close of $1,143.50. Spot gold hit a record $1,152.75 an ounce on Wednesday.

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U.S. gold futures for December delivery was at $1,141.2 per ounce at the same time compared to $1,141.90 an ounce on the NYMEX. Futures hit a record high of $1,153.40 on Wednesday.

Analysts attributed gold’s slight decline to dollar's rise as that prompted investors to book profits after prices hit record highs above $1,150 earlier in the week.

However they said bullion's appeal as an alternative asset kept support firm.

Bullion rallied successively to record highs this month, underpinned by a number of central bank gold purchases earlier in the month, including India's acquisition of 200 tones of the precious metal from the International Monetary Fund.

A World Gold Council report released on Thursday showed that supplies to the market of recycled gold rose 31 percent to 283 tonnes in the third quarter. But that was down from 314 tonnes in the second quarter and also a drop from 569 tonnes in the first quarter of 2009.

The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust said its holdings stood at 1,117.493tonnes as of Nov. 19, unchanged from the previous day.

The world's largest silver-backed exchange-traded fund, the iShares Silver Trust said its bullion holdings rose 94.73 tonnes or 1.05 percent from the previous day to a fresh record 9,116.04 tonnes as of Nov. 19.