Jan 6: Vietnam gold edges up to VND35.87Mln/tael on firmer global gold

Local gold prices on January 6 edged up VND50,000-VND70,000 to VND35.87million/tael after plunging VND400,000 yesterday as world gold prices firmed.

SJC in Hanoi was listed at VND35.75million/tael and VND35.85million/tael for bid and ask, respectively. Meanwhile, SJC in HCMC was listed at VND35.75million/tael and VND35.83milllion/tael for bid and ask, respectively.

Sacombank-SBJ in Ho Chi Minh was listed at VND35.79million/tael and VND35.83million/tael for bid and ask, respectively.

Bid and ask of Thang Long gold bullion, a product of Bao Tin Minh Chau were listed at VND35.76million/tael and VND35.82million/tael for bid and ask, respectively.

In New York trade last night, spot gold was last bid around $1,373 an ounce. Earlier, it fell more than 1% to session lows at $1,363.80, a day after it lost 2.5% to its biggest one-day loss since early November in a profit-taking commodities rout.

U.S. gold futures for February delivery settled down $5.10 to end at $1,373.70 an ounce.

But gold still looks likely to be firmly underpinned by factors such as concerns over sovereign risk, threats to U.S. economic stability and the prospect of rising inflation in the fast-growing developing world, analysts said.

“I don’t think this marks a turnaround from what has been and continues to be bullish sentiment towards gold and hard assets in general,” said Credit Agricole analyst Robin Bhar.

“The ADP numbers and the recent raft of economic numbers are good to see, but it’s not a one-way bet that this market is in a solid economic uptrend,” he said. “There are still a lot of banana skins along the way.”

Commodities rebounded as the encouraging U.S. data lifted oil and industrial metal markets after initially slipping almost across the board as the dollar rose.

Reflecting waning investor appetite for gold, holdings of the world’s largest gold exchange traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust , fell to a seven-month low, reversing most of the inflows that followed the euro zone debt crisis.

“The big risk for gold, from my perspective, (is that) some of the major hedge funds, which are long in physical gold or ETFs, start to take profits,” said Peter Fertig, a consultant for Quantitative Commodity Research. – Stoxplus.com

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