Gold prices climb to 10-month high

Gold prices in the domestic market hit a ten-month high on Sept. 6 and remained well above the global price, despite last month's intervention by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to stabilise the market.
Gold prices in the domestic market hit a ten-month high on Sept. 6 and remained well above the global price, despite last month's intervention by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to stabilise the market.

The cost of gold hit 46 million VND (2,190 USD) per tael after the global price reached 1,698 USD an ounce - one tael is equal to 1.2 ounces - pushing the domestic price to 7.5 percent above the global index.

This comes despite last month's intervention, when the SBV ordered Vietnam 's largest gold refiner the Sai Gon Jewelry Co (SJC) to stop producing SJC gold bullion. From August 23, SJC began producing only gold bullion of 99.99 percent purity under the direction and supervision of the central bank, which also oversees the scale of production, when production takes place and the raw material gold supply.

On Sept. 6 SJC, which has a 90 percent share of the domestic market, listed buying/selling price at 45.8/46 million VND a tael, a rise of 300,000 VND on the previous day. Doji Group also raised its prices to 45.45/45.6 million VND a tael.

Tran Nhu My, director of the Doji Group, said that people turned to gold assets as a safe-haven in the wake of negative reports from the financial markets.

My added that the lack of a readily available supply of gold locally, also played a part in pushing the domestic price higher than its global counterpart.

Using the official exchange rate of Vietcombank, local gold prices were still roughly 2.6 million VND a tael higher than the world price.

The world price started to pick up late last week after the US Federal Reserve hinted at a fresh stimulus package, or a third round of quantitative easing (QE3), to aid the US economic recovery.

World gold prices marked their third consecutive monthly rise with a 4.5 percent increase in August, the strongest rise so far this year./.

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