|
Gold falls to two-month low
Gold prices in Ho Chi Minh City sank to a fresh two-month low Wednesday.
The price of the precious metal at Saigon Jewelry Joint Stock Company, HCMC’s biggest gold trader known as SJC, fell by VND190,000 (US$11.50) to VND17.98 million ($1,084) per tael. SJC’s gold price has dropped VND670,000 ($40.40) per tael in just two days. A tael is 37.5 grams.
The plunge in the gold price triggered a surge in trading on the Saigon Gold Exchange.
Wednesday, 339,550 taels worth VND6 trillion ($362 million) was traded, compared with an average of 200,000 taels a day traded last week.
Global gold, meanwhile, rose 1 percent in Europe Wednesday as investors took advantage of a three-day fall in prices to buy below the key $900 an ounce support level.
Gold rose to $883.80/884.80 an ounce at 10:14 GMT from $876.35/877.95 late in New York on Tuesday.
“Clearly there is some opportunistic buying going on at the moment,” said Daniel Hynes, metals strategist at Merrill Lynch.
“We have seen numerous times over the past six months that $900 an ounce is a key support level and whenever gold has fallen below that it has recovered relatively quickly.”
Buying and selling by foreign investment companies followed the pattern described by Hynes, said Huynh Trung Khanh, a consultant for the Vietnam chapter of World Gold Council.
“For example, when the gold price reaches $920 per ounce, investment companies will sell gold heavily to push the price down,” he said.
“They will buy heavily when gold falls to $870 an ounce.”
Khanh forecast global gold prices were likely to fall to $850-$860 per ounce and the domestic price was likely to drop to VND17 million ($1,025) per tael in the next quarter.
“Domestic gold may move up in October and November, which is the wedding season and at Christmas, due to growing demand,” Khanh said.
“I also think the international price is likely to reach $1,000 per ounce at the end of this year.”
Vietnam imported around 66 tons of gold in the first six months of the year.
Analysts said it would take time to consume that amount.
Nearly 20 tons of gold are traded in Vietnam every day, compared with 2,000 tons a day around the world.
Thanhnien
|
