HONG KONG, Nov. 16 (Reuters) – Gold hit a record high on Monday as investors hedged against a weak dollar while Asian shares edged higher after upbeat reports from US retailers underpinned confidence the global economy is recovering.

Gold punched a record above $1,126 an ounce, and sending platinum to its highest level since September 2008, as the dollar dipped 0.3 percent against a basket of currencies, and on bullish forecast from US investment fund BlackRock.

Markets are focused on US President Barack Obama's visit to China that began on Sunday as he is expected to discuss China's yuan currency, which the US believes is undervalued, with Chinese leaders.

Gold, which has gained 10 percent in the past 2 weeks, was further supported by forecast from investment fund BlackRock, a manager and advise to the US Federal Reserve, that gold would rise further and central banks would be net buyers of gold this year.

''The most recent break-out in the gold price in US dollars has caused most gold prices to start trending higher at the same time,'' Evy Hambro, who runs two BlackRock commodities funds which are among the world's largest commodities funds, said in Sydney.

He added that investors were now looking for gold to rise in other commodities as well as US dollars.

''When you start to see the price rising in a range of different currencies, it is a clear sign of a very strong market to come,'' Hambro said.

Asian shares picked up after a slow start. The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks traded outside Japan and the Thomson Reuters index of regional shares were both up 1 percent.

Japan's Nikkei average however was flat as investors digested third-quarter growth data, which showed Asia's biggest economy grew at its fastest pace in more than two years.