UPDATE 5-Gold plunges to 8-month low as investors jump ship

* Gold plummets to 8-month low

* Dollar's rally trigger commodity-wide sell-off

* Platinum at lowest since mid-December (Recasts, adds comment/detail, changes dateline, pvs Singapore)

By Pratima Desai

LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Gold prices plummeted to 8-month lows on Tuesday as the dollar's rally triggered a massive sell-off, hitting oil and industrial metals as well.

Spot gold XAU= touched $801.90 an ounce, its lowest level since late December, and was at $810.60/811.60 at 1016 GMT compared with $819.25/820.85 late in New York on Monday.

The precious metal is down more than 20 percent since hitting a record high of $1,030.80 on March 17.

"It looks like sentiment towards gold has turned negative, we're seeing long liquidation on the back of both dollar movement and the oil price movement," said Suki Cooper, analyst at Barclays Capital.

The dollar hit a 6-month high against a basket of major currencies as investors looked beyond U.S. growth worries to a slowing global economy. [USD/]