UPDATE 1-S.Africa's central bank continues building reserves

* Reserves up, boosted by gold price

* Currency reserves increase points to dollar buying (Adds details, background, quote)

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 6 (Reuters) - South Africa's net gold and foreign exchange reserves rose 2.3 percent to $38.784 billion in October, largely on a jump in currency holdings and a higher gold price.

Gross reserves stood at $39.788 billion, up from $39.142 billion the previous month, the central bank said in a statement.

Analysts said the data showed the central bank kept buying dollars October, in line with suggestions from its governor Tito Mboweni that his institution, worried about the impact of a relatively strong rand, would continue to build up reserves when possible.

"It looks like they have been quite active in the market, taking dollars out of the market," said Colen Garrow, economist at financial services group Brait.

"I think the signal conveyed from the reserves numbers is that they don't want the rand to strengthen more."

Mboweni and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan have both warned that the rand's gains this year may be overdone and could hurt some sectors of the economy.

The currency ZAR=D3 has weakened over the past three weeks but remains about 20 percent stronger against the dollar. It was steady at around 7.60 against the U.S. currency after the reserves data was released.