The domestic gold price fell sharply in the last trading session of the year, ending at under 35 million VND per tael (1 tael = 1.2 ounces) on December 31, nearly 12 million VND per tael less than at the beginning of the year.

The buying and selling prices of the SJC gold were around 34.27-34.78 million VND per tael, lower than on December 30.

To stabilise the domestic gold market, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has strictly implemented Decree 24/2012/ND-CP on gold business activities and ended taking deposits or providing loans in gold.

The bank began the first gold bar auction on March 28. By December 31, after 76 auctions, the bank provided a total of 1,819,900 taels of gold to the market, equivalent to 70 tonnes.

The gold price in the Asian market on December 31 experienced the sharpest fall since 1981 as investors injected money into the stock market./.