The following are New York midsession prices and market updates for precious metals and copper: GOLD * Gold for June delivery gains $4.30 to $887.00 an ounce at 12:05 a.m. EDT (1605 GMT) on the COMEX division of New York Mercantile Exchange. * Ranged from $882.80 to $891.00. * Physical demand is slowly and steadily emerging around the current levels, and this along with firm trend in investment fund flow is supporting the market - analysts. * India's metals trading firm MMTC Ltd said it was likely to import 9-10 tonnes of gold this month, helping lift the country's April imports to 30 tonnes. * Bullion prices may rise this week because of Akshaya Tritya, India's gold-buying festival, on April 27. * Gold supported by U.S. stocks which initially fell as a slew of mixed results from major companies and a quarterly loss from Morgan Stanley stirred fears over the financial sector. Wall Street, however, turns higher by midday. [.N] * The world economy has fallen into a severe recession, and the International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for global growth, spurring flight-to-quality demand in gold. * COMEX estimated 10 a.m. electronic futures volume at 29,269 lots. Floor volume was not available due to a technical glitch. * Spot gold traded at $885.10 an ounce, up 0.3 percent from its late Tuesday quote in New York. * The London afternoon gold fix was $886.00 an ounce. PLATINUM * NYMEX July platinum climbs $19.80, or 1.7 percent, to $1,177.40 an ounce on broad-based strength of the platinum group metals, including rhodium and palladium. * Spot platinum at $1,170.00 an ounce, up 1.5 percent from its late Tuesday quote. PALLADIUM * June palladium jumps $10.65, or 4.8 percent, to $232.80 an ounce. * Palladium boosted by demand related to renewed talk of cold fusion technology after CBS TV covered the topic on its news program "60 Minutes" on Sunday - NYMEX traders. * Spot palladium was at $229.50 an ounce, up 3.4 percent from its previous finish. SILVER * COMEX May silver rises 14.0 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $12.200 an ounce, rebounding from the previous session's losses. * Ranged from $11.990 to $12.310. * COMEX estimated 10:00 a.m. electronic futures volume at 5,690 lots. * Spot silver was at $12.20 an ounce, up 1.8 percent from its previous finish. * The London silver fix at $12.120 an ounce. COPPER * Benchmark COMEX copper for May delivery down 1.30 cents at $2.0740 a lb. * Session range from $2.0230 from $2.1055. * COMEX estimated electronic futures volumes at 10,169 lots by 10 a.m. * COMEX copper futures trim sharp overnight losses on back of rebounding equities and an extended slide in the dollar versus the euro - brokers. * Copper's losses slowed by another hefty drawdown in London Metal Exchange (LME) inventory levels and bullish trade data from China - analysts. * Imports of refined copper by China, the world's largest consumer accounting for about 30 percent of global demand, rose to a record high of 296,843 tonnes of refined copper in March, up 137.6 percent from a year ago. [ID:nSP484083] * LME copper warehouse stocks dropped 7,200 tonnes to a three-month low of 450,100 tonnes on Wednesday -- a decline of more than 20 percent since late February. * Canceled warrants eased to 70,975 tonnes from 72,375 tonnes the previous day. Canceled warrants account for more than 15 percent of total stocks. * COMEX copper stocks went up 63 short tons to 47,671 short tons as of Tuesday. * LME copper for three-months delivery settled down $263 at $4,540 a tonne.

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