Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Gold futures were little changed after falling on concern hedge funds and other large speculators may start selling holdings, which last week reached the highest in six months.

Large speculators increased bets the price of gold will rise, so-called net long positions, to 115,137 contracts as of Oct. 12, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Oct. 15. On April 13, gold futures had their then biggest fall in two months after the CFTC said net longs the week before had reached a record 144,253 contracts, the equivalent of 5.8 percent of world gold production.

The CFTC report ``confirmed our view that there has been little speculative long liquidation and, as such, gold remains vulnerable to a sell-off,'' John Reade, an analyst at UBS AG in London, said in a report.

Gold for December delivery fell 60 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $417 an ounce in after-hours trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange at 9:38 a.m. Sydney time. The contract fell 0.6 percent yesterday.

Hedge funds and other big speculators have increased their net long positions in each of the past four weeks according to CFTC data.

Gold for immediate delivery fell 54 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $415.88 an ounce at 9:08 a.m. Sydney time, compared with $416.42 at 1.30 p.m. yesterday in New York.

To contact the reporter on this story: Matt Chambers in Melbourne at mchambers1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 18, 2004 20:01 EDT