By Nicholas Larkin and Glenys Sim March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Gold, little changed in London today, may decline for a second day as a strengthening dollar curbs demand for the metal as an alternative investment. The dollar gained as much as 0.7 percent against the euro amid concern that Greece will fail to secure financial assistance from the European Union. Gold typically moves inversely to the greenback. “The weaker euro has lent further pressure to gold and silver this morning and will continue to provide short-term direction,” James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com in London, said in a report. While a drop below the 100-day moving average at $1,118 “could trigger additional technical related pressure,” dips will likely find “strong support.” Gold for immediate delivery added $1.26, or 0.1 percent, to $1,121.61 an ounce at 9:15 a.m. local time. Bullion for April delivery was 0.2 percent lower at $1,121.60 on the Comex in New York. Michael Meister, the chief finance spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, said yesterday that Greece should turn to the International Monetary Fund if it needs aid. Greece may seek aid from the IMF during the April 2-4 weekend, Dow Jones Newswires reported. “As long as there isn’t a clear resolution of the debt issue in Europe, gold will continue to be supported in the current range,” Wang Honggang, a metals analyst at CIFCO Research Institute, said from Hubei today. “The performance of the dollar and the euro will drive gold for now.” Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange- traded fund backed by the metal, were unchanged for a fifth day at 1,115.51 metric tons yesterday. Among metals for immediate delivery in London, silver fell 0.4 percent to $17.385 an ounce. Platinum declined 0.2 percent to $1,628.57 an ounce and palladium lost 0.5 percent to $476.25 an ounce. To contact the reporterS on this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net; Nicholas Larkin in London at nlarkin1@bloomberg.net.

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