BENGALURU, June 13 (Reuters) - Gold hit a near four week high early Monday, supported by weaker Asian stocks as investors turned towards safe haven-assets ahead of this week's central bank meetings and Britain's June 23 referendum on its European Union membership.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold XAU= was nearly flat at $1,273.36 an ounce by 0105 GMT. Bullion touched a session best of $1,278.03, its highest since May 18.
* U.S. gold GCcv1 was up 0.1 percent at $1,276.50
* Often perceived as an insurance against economic and financial concerns, gold has risen 5 percent in June and 20 percent in 2016 so far.
* Asian shares and sterling skidded in early trade on Monday and the perceived safe-haven yen rose. MKTS/GLOB
* The safe-haven yen surged to its highest level in three years against both sterling and the euro. The dollar lost 0.4 percent to 106.60 yen JPY= , edging near one-month low of 106.26 touched last Thursday. USD/
* The U.S. Federal Reserve, Bank of England, Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Japan will all meet this week. All are expected to hold monetary policy steady against a backdrop of caution about the global economic outlook as well as the impact about a possible "Brexit." The Bank of Japan may have run into an unexpected obstacle as it considers expanding its extraordinary stimulus programme as soon as next week -- the wrath of the country's powerful but typically compliant banks over pushing interest rates deeper into negative territory. Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust GLD , the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 0.74 percent to 893.92 tonnes on Friday, the highest since October 2013. GOL/ETF
* Hedge funds and money managers raised their net long position in COMEX gold contracts in the week to June 7, and cut their bullish stance in silver, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed on Friday. Gold discounts in India expanded to their widest in nearly 3-1/2 months this week amid lacklustre demand elsewhere in Asia, with bullion's recent rally dampening retail demand. For the top stories on metals and other news, click TOP/MTL or GOL
MARKET REPORT
* Oil prices settled down 3 percent on Friday after data showing the U.S. oil drilling rig count rising for a second week in row and a stronger dollar weighed on demand for greenback-denominated crude futures. O/R
DATA AHEAD (GMT)
0200 China industrial output
May
0200 China retail sales
May
0200 China urban investment
May