Gold prices drop, exchange rates surge after Tet holiday
By Thanh Thuong - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC – After the Lunar New Year holiday, the local market on Monday witnessed a strong fall in gold prices by VND1 million a tael compared to the prices quoted at gold shops two days earlier, while the U.S. dollar turned firmer against Vietnam dong.
At 4p.m. on Monday, Saigon Jewelry Holding Co., or SJC, quoted its spot price at VND44.7 million for buying and VND45 million for selling a tael, much lower than the respective figures of VND45.6 million and VND46 million in previous days. Nguyen Cong Tuong, head of the SJC sales department, said his company just resumed trading on Monday afternoon, with few transactions recorded.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Cuc, deputy general director of Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company (PNJ), said the trading volume at her firm on Monday doubled the volume traded at the end of the lunar year. The firm bought 720 taels and sold 850 taels.
A tael is equal to 1.2 troy ounces.
Cuc attributed the balanced trading to the fact that many people have rushed to sell the bullion to make profits while others have bought it for luck at the beginning of the lunar year. She noted that jewelry trading had achieved better performance than before Tet.
A representative of the Hanoi-based Bao Tin Minh Chau Jewelry Co., which resumed trading last Saturday, reported higher trading volume at the company on Monday, with 80% being buying transactions.
The gold price at home has sharply gone down compared to that in the international market as the quoted price on www.kitco.com at 4p.m. on Monday was still US$1,723.9 per ounce, decreasing by US$13.4 against the closing price on the New York market last weekend. This means the local price only exceeds the global one by VND700,000 a tael excluding related fees, much lower than the gap of nearly VND2 million a tael last Saturday.
On the contrary, the exchange rate between Vietnam dong and U.S. dollar quoted by local banks bounced back on Monday morning, surpassing the level of VND21,000 to the dollar.
Vietcombank on Monday bought one dollar at VND20,936 and sold it at VND21,036, VND200 and VND106 higher than the buying and selling prices before Tet.
BIDV quoted the rate at VND20.950-VND21,036 to the dollar. Similarly, Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint-Stock Bank (Eximbank) bought the dollar at VND20,980 and sold it at VND21,036, up by VND120 and VND56 against the last trading day before the Lunar New Year holiday.
The same situation also occurred on the unofficial market, with the greenback’s price recorded at VND20,950 and VND21,300 for buying and selling respectively.