Paulson sharply cuts stake in SPDR Gold Trust - filing

(Adds Caxton and others' moves in gold)

By Marcy Nicholson

NEW YORK, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Hedge fund Paulson & Co, one of the world's most influential gold investors, sharply cut its stake in physical gold at the end of 2015, selling around the lows ahead of the biggest rally in more than four years, a government filing showed on Tuesday.

New York-based Paulson & Co, led by longtime gold bull John Paulson, cut its stake in SPDR Gold Trust, the world's biggest gold exchange-traded fund (ETF) by 37 percent as spot gold prices fell to the lowest in nearly six years.

This brought Paulson's stake to 5.78 million shares worth $585.9 million on Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) . 31, the U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . Securities and Exchange Commission 13F-HR filing showed.

Also in the three-month period ended Dec. 31, Caxton Corp eliminated its stake in Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF, having held 31,733 shares worth $436,000 in the third quarter, the 13F-HR filing showed.

Others, like Soros Fund Management LLC and Jana Partners LLC that had already eliminated large stakes from Gold Miners ETF earlier in the year, stayed out.

In December, the price of spot gold fell to the lowest in nearly six years at $1,045.85 per ounce, causing a steady outflow from gold ETFs (Shenzhen: 395013.SZ - news) as investors looked away from the traditional safe haven and the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in nearly 10 years.

The gold market surprised investors in early 2016, however, and rallied 12 percent in just five weeks to $1,260.60 an ounce, a one-year high and the biggest such price surge since September 2011, as concern about global economic growth helped revive gold's safe-haven appeal.

In contrast, CI Investments Inc, an investment manager of Toronto-based CI Financial Corp (Other OTC: CIFAF - news) , raised its stake in SPDR to 944,579 shares worth $95.8 million, a 13F-HR filing showed earlier this month.

In gold miners, Paulson also reduced its stake in AngloGold Ashanti but remained unchanged in IAMGOLD Corp , Randgold Resources and NovaGold, the filings showed. (Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Tom Brown)