|
Gold vendors make a killing in roller-coaster market
The extreme volatility of gold prices in January and February delivered some juicy profits to the gold bullion and jewelry companies in Ho Chi Minh City.
Analysts estimate that gold traders made VND300,000 (US$17.2) to VND400,000 per tael in February, when the yellow metal rose to an all-time high of VND19.9 million per tael (roughly 1.2 troy oz).
Sales of gold taels by Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Co. (PNJ) in the first two months equaled 70-80 percent of PNJ’s total sales in 2008, chairwoman Cao Thi Ngoc Dung said.
The firm’s pre-tax profit for 2008 was up 21 percent year-on-year to VND167.6 billion from revenue of VND4 trillion, Dung said, without disclosing the exact change of sales figure.
PNJ has set a sales target of VND4.5 trillion and pre-tax profit of VND185 billion for this year, targets that Dung is sure her company will exceed.
“Gold traders don’t know the meaning of ‘loss,’ even when the market is on a bumpy ride,” she said.
Dung said the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations on gold traders was negligible, and there was no excess inventory to pressure them.
Another big winner was Saigon Jewelry Joint Stock Co., which raked in tens of billions of dong in January and again in February, according to an SJS executive who asked to remain anonymous.
SJS, which is Vietnam’s biggest gold trader, anticipates revenue of US$3 billion and a profit of VND152 billion this year.
Now that gold has taken a breather and dropped back, SJS’s sales have climbed to 5,000 taels a day on average thanks to the lower gold price.
Sacombank (SBJ) too achieved positive sales and profits in January and February, director Nguyen Ngoc Que Chi said, without saying how much the firm had made.
Dau Tu Chung Khoan
|
