Dollar and gold prices stable, transactions weak

The gold price has been hovering around 26-26.2 million dong per tael. After one year of levels higher than the world price, the domestic price is now 50-70,000 dong per tael less than the world price.

Gold companies all report very few transactions. Saigon Jewelry Company (SJC) and Phu Nhuan Jewelry Company (PNJ) is selling 1,200-1,500 taels per day, just equal to 20 percent of the average level of the same period of 2009. The volume is very low compared with peak periods when SJC once sold 35,000 taels a day.

Truong Cong Nhon, Deputy General Director of SJC, revealed that the gold supply is profuse, with tens of tons kept at commercial banks. The gold volume on the market over the last three months reached nearly 10 tons, so people who needed gold have purchase enough already and will not buy more right now.

Nhon added that the stabilization of the gold price in the last month cannot help investors earn money, so they will not want to purchase gold.

Normal people, according to Nhan, also are not interested in gold at the moment. They would rather use their money for other purposes.

Meanwhile, the dollar continues to decrease on the black market. The dollar on April 6 decreased to 19,170-19,200 dong, down by 20-30 dong from April 5. As such, the dollar price on the black market is coming closer to the price quoted by commercial banks at 19,070-19,100 dong per dollar.

As the dollar price drops, trade has quieted. Gold shops in HCM City all noted that there are very few buyers these days.

K, the owner of a gold shop in HCM City, remarked that big clients like import companies have told her that they do not need dollars from the black market any more. Now they can purchase dollars from banks since the banks can purchase dollars in large quantities from export companies.

The decreasing dollar price can also been explained by weak gold transactions. As the domestic gold price is lower than the world rate, speculators will not collect dollars to import gold illegally.

A State Bank of Vietnam report on April 5 also commented that credit institutions can now buy foreign currencies, plus the volume of foreign currencies the State Bank can purchase from credit institutions has increased considerably.

Saigon tiep thi

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