Aug 18: Vietnam gold steady, banks raise dollar bid

Vietnam gold was steady in line with global market movement but was still VND520,000 higher than the global market. Banks raised dollar bid.

As of 10:00 Hanoi time, Sacombank-SBJ gold was listed at VND45.41 million/tael and VND45.47 million/tael for bid and ask, respectively.

SJC in Hanoi was listed at VND45.35 million/tael and VND45.52 million/tael for bid and ask, respectively while SJC in the free market was quoted at VND44.34 million-VND45.52 million a tael for bid and ask respectively.

Of note, gold trading was sluggish but traders widened the gap between bid and ask by VND180,000 to minimize risks.

Global markets:

Gold rose for a third day on a combination of increased inflationary pressure and ideas this week’s Franco-German proposals will not solve the euro zone debt crisis.

Spot gold was up 0.2% at $1,789.49 ounce, about $20 off last week’s record $1,813. U.S. gold futures settled up $8.80 at $1,793.80 an ounce.

Analysts said that bullion is vulnerable for a sharp pullback following a rally of as much as 4 percent in the last two sessions and a surge of around $300 in the past 1.5 months.

“Gold looks like it’s overbought based on various technical-momentum indicators,” Reuters quoted Leo Larkin, metals equity analyst at Standard & Poor’s as saying.

Larkin said that gold could sharply retreat to between $1,450 and $1,550 in the coming months.

The relative strength index shows that, technically, bullion is well into the overbought territory, and the metal appears to be forming a climax top on weekly charts, suggested a correction is possible.

The gold market has largely ignored market fundamentals as bullion has been driven by strong investment demand amid stock market turmoil and worries about U.S. and European debt levels.

SPDR Gold Trust Holdings Rises 0.7%

Holdings in the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust edged up 0.72% from a day earlier to 1,271.98 metric tons by Aug. 17

SPDR’s holdings’ record-high was 1,320.436 tons on June 29 last year.

Dollar prices

Vietnam’s central bank set the U.S. dollar’s exchange rate at VND20,618, unchanged for 8 days.

Commercial banks raised dollar bid as much as VND26 today while they kept offer at the ceiling VND20,824. – Stoxplus.com

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