Gold sales increases in Hanoi

Gold companies in Hanoi have reported that gold sales increased when the prices have decreased and the policy on gold trade management became clear. Meanwhile, the HCM City gold market remains quiet.

Kim Anh, an officer of Bao Tin Minh Chau gold shop in Hanoi said that just after one hour of opening on July 27, the gold volume sold reached 40 taels (a tael is equal to 1.2 oz). Meanwhile, the volume of gold purchased from people was just ¼, about 10 taels, mostly jewelries.

The officer said people began purchasing bullion gold last Saturday, when the gold price decreased to around 37 million dong. Prior to that, when the gold price climbed to over 38 million dong, people only sold and did not purchase gold.

Most of visitors to Bao Tin Minh Chau in the morning of June 27 asked to purchase gold instead of selling jewelries as previously.

Nguyen Van Hung, who lives on Dai Co Viet street in Hai Ba Trung district in Hanoi, said that right after hearing that the State still allows people to purchase and sell bullion gold, he has rushed to purchase gold.

“Several days ago, the gold prices were overly high, at over 38 million dong per tael and I did not dare to purchase. Meanwhile, it was unclear if the State prohibits bullion gold trade. Now everything is clear, while the prices have decreased, so I decided to purchase several taels of gold to hoard up,” he said.

The SJC Gold Shop on Le Ngoc Han Street also received a high number of visitors on the morning of June 27. At 10 am, about ten customers were seen standing at the counter waiting to purchase bullion gold. The saleswomen here said in previous days, visitors just came to purchase jewelries, and no one intended to buy bullion gold.

Cong, who was waiting to buy bullion gold at the shop, said that he believed that it was the right time to purchase bullion gold, because the gold prices have eased. Also, he thinks that keeping gold is the best way to preserve assets.

“Now people can sigh with relief that the bullion gold purchase and sale are not prohibited, provided that people make transactions with the licensed enterprises,” he said.

Le Thi Trang, Head of the SJC Shop on Le Ngoc Han Street said that in the first half of June 27, the shop sold about 200 taels of gold, while it purchased 40-50 taels. “The performance is absolutely different from the happenings in previous days, when we could only sell several taels,” she said.

However, Trang said, the volume of gold sold on June 27 was just equal to 20-30 percent of that sold on the days before the information about the possible prohibition of bullion gold trade came out. “The sales are now better than some days ago, but remain much worse than several months ago,” she said.

Meanwhile, the HCM City market remains quiet despite the good news about gold trade management policy. The owner of Van Nga Gold Shop at Ben Thanh Market in district 1 said that though the prices decreased late last week and continued decreasing earlier this week, there have been very few transactions.

“We sit idle all day long, because only some customers come and ask to buy jewelry,” she said.

A gold shop owner at Ba Chieu Market also complained that the business has been very bad, because very few people come to buy bullion gold.

Ton The Vinh Quyen, Business Director of Sacombank-SBJ said only 200 taels of gold had been sold at all retail agents of Sacombank in HCM City, even though the gold prices are at low levels.

Nguyen Cong Tuong from SJC also said that the demand has not increased yet after a long period of quietness. The total trading volume at SJC’s chain stays at 3500 taels of gold, which is not much higher than previous days.

Some people have come to make transactions, but they are just individual buyers. Meanwhile, investors have not taken any moves after a long period of standing outside the market. – Vietnamnet

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