Vietnam gold bucks trend, undercuting VND37Mln, Dong falls a third day

Local gold on March 23 undercut VND37million threshold to VND36.96million/tael despite global gold gained for a fifth day in New York last night, the dong fell VND5 in the official market, a third straight day.

As of 1: 55 p.m Hanoi time, Sacombank-SBJ gold as listed at VND36.9million/tael and VND36.96million/tael for bid and ask, respectively.

Bid and ask of Thang Long gold bullion, a product of Bao Tin Minh Chau were listed at VND36.85 million/tael and VND36.97million/tael for bid and ask, respectively.

SJC in Hanoi was listed at VND36.88million/tael and VND36.98 million/tael for bid and ask, respectively, meanwhile, SJC in HCMC was listed at VND36.88 million/tael and VND36.96 milllion/tael for bid and ask, respectively.

In Asian trade this morning, spot gold edged down 0.1% to $1,427.85 an ounce. U.S. gold futures was nearly flat at $1,428.

Bullion has been moving in a narrow range of $4 in the past two sessions, lacking momentum for a further rise on easing fears over Japan’s nuclear crisis, even though the battle to contain the problem was ongoing.

Profit-taking was spotted as prices rose towards $1,430, seen as a key resistance level, traders said.

“Investors don’t know what to do — we see profit-taking at the high price range, but fears of inflation as well as the Middle East crisis triggers buy-back by speculators when prices go down,” said a Hong Kong-based dealer.

Improving outlook for developed economies, including the United States, has prompted some investors to move into riskier assets such as equities, he added.

Technical analysis showed that unless gold effectively breaks above the pivotal resistance at $1,435, market sentiment might be bearish, pressuring prices down to $1,416, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.

Investors are also eyeing the currency market. The dollar index edged up after sinking to a 15-month low in the previous session, as the euro hovered below a 4-1/2 month high.

Sovereign debt problems in Portugal and Ireland sapped appetite for the single currency, as Portugal’s parliament will vote on the government’s latest austerity measures on Wednesday.

A rebound in the dollar could hurt sentiment on commodities.

In local official forex market, the dong fell VND5 to trade at VND20,688 a dollar from previous day of VND20,683 and VND20,658 on Monday. – Stoxplus.com

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