April 4: Vietnam gold slips to VND36.77Mln, Dong stable

Local gold on April 4 plunged to VND36.77million/tael, down over VND100,000 from early trade while global gold inched up 0.2% to $1,430.40 an ounce in Asia. Meanwhile, the dong remained stable in the official market.

As of 3:25 p.m. Hanoi time, Sacombank-SBJ gold as listed at VND36.9million/tael and VND36.77million/tael for bid and ask, respectively.

Bid and ask of Thang Long gold bullion, a product of Bao Tin Minh Chau were listed at VND36.67million/tael and VND37.8million/tael for bid and ask, respectively.

SJC in Hanoi was listed at VND36.71million/tael and VND36.8million/tael for bid and ask, respectively, meanwhile, SJC in HCMC was listed at VND36.71million/tael and VND36.78milllion/tael for bid and ask, respectively.

In Asian trade this morning, spot gold inched up 0.2% to $1,430.40 an ounce after ending the first quarter up 0.7%, as higher oil prices amid the ongoing Middle East crisis and a firm euro on expectations of a European Central Bank rate hike lent support. U.S. gold futures gained 0.2% to $1,431.90.

“We saw the continuous geopolitical risk in the Middle East crisis, and oil prices going higher. It certainly looks to me that gold has been tracking both oil and euro quite closely in past few days,” said Darren Heathcote, head of trading at Investec Australia.

“A great deal of expectations dictate that the ECB will raise interest rates very soon, and probably will continue to raise rates for the rest of the year. A lot of that you may consider already priced in,” said Heathcote.

Rate hikes usually dampen sentiment in gold, seen as an inflation hedge. But in the long run, rising inflation benefits gold.

U.S. gold is still biased to rise to $1,447.40 per ounce even after a sharp retracement to $1,412.55 on Friday, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.

“Gold is still holding its ground and will probably be range-bound,” said a Singapore-based dealer, adding that gold is expected to trade in a range $1,410 and $1,445.

In local official forex market, the dong remained steady as the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) kept reference rate unchanged at VND20,703 per dollar, according to the central bank’s data.

The central bank on Friday hiked the reverse repurchase rate and refinance rates to 13% from 12% in an effort to battles soaring inflation.

The central bank’s last increase of the reverse repurchase rate was on Feb. 22, when it hiked the rate by 100 basis points. It has been increased 6 percentage points since early November in the face of high inflation. – Stoxplus.com

Tags: vietnam gold, Vietnam gold market, Vietnam gold prices