March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Gold gained for the first day in four in Asia as investment demand increased after the Federal Reserve’s plan to buy debt fueled concerns about inflationary pressures ahead.

Gold holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange- traded fund backed by bullion, rose to a record 1,124.99 metric tons yesterday, according to figures on the company’s Web site. Investment demand for gold will rise 21 percent to an all-time high of 52.3 million ounces this year, commodity-researcher CPM Group said yesterday in its annual outlook report.

“Gold has fallen in the past few days because equities really shot up,” said Tetsuya Yoshii, vice president for derivative products at Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. “But with all the money being pumped into the system everywhere in the world, inflation is going to be a problem in the future and that’s what will keep gold stable in its current $850 to $950 range.”

Gold for immediate delivery rose as much as 0.6 percent to $931.75 an ounce, and was at $927.76 at 1:32 p.m. in Singapore. The metal lost 3.5 percent in the past three days as the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, little changed today, rallied.

Central banks are lowering interest rates and spending trillions of dollars in response to the deepest slump since the Great Depression. The Federal Reserve has said it will buy more than $1 trillion in government and mortgage debt to help end the recession and credit crisis.

Still, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell yesterday after its fourth-biggest rally since the 1930s, as the nation’s top two banking officials called for stronger regulation of financial firms and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said the government will have to seize major lenders.

Among other precious metals for immediate delivery, silver fell 0.5 percent to $13.3862 an ounce, platinum rose 0.5 percent to $1,125.50 an ounce, and palladium slid 0.8 percent to $206.75 an ounce at 1:33 p.m. in Singapore.

To contact the reporter on this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 25, 2009 02:13 EDT