By Glenys Sim March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Gold, little changed in Asia, may fall for the first time in three days as rising equities and a firmer dollar reduce investor demand for commodities as alternative assets. Platinum traded near a two-month high. Immediate-delivery bullion fell as much as 0.2 percent to $1,125.55 an ounce and was at $1,127.35 at 9:40 a.m. in Singapore. Bullion climbed 1.7 percent yesterday, the most since Feb. 11, after the U.S. Federal Reserve pledged to hold rates low, pushing the greenback down as much as 0.7 percent against a basket of six major currencies. “Risk appetite rose after the Fed left interest rates and its accompanying statement unchanged,” said Stefan Graber, analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG. “We continue to highlight downside risks for gold despite yesterday’s recovery. Our technical analysts note that their short-term gold outlook would be downgraded to negative if gold breaks below $1,100.” The dollar index was little changed today on speculation the U.S. will maintain economic policy stimulus. Fed officials yesterday repeated their pledge to keep the main interest rate near zero for an “extended period” to safeguard economic recovery. Gold tends to move inversely to the dollar. Asian stocks extended a global advance after the Fed said the U.S. labor market is stabilizing and business spending has risen. Equities also gained as concerns that Greece will fail to contain the euro region’s biggest budget deficit eased. Platinum was down 0.1 percent at $1,634.25, after earlier reaching $1,637, its highest since Jan. 21. Silver was unchanged at $17.455 an ounce and palladium eased 0.1 percent to $472.63 an ounce. To contact the reporter on this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net

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