Inclement weather holding domestic gold prices firm

VietNamNet Bridge – Asian gold prices increased at the first trading session of the week, while domestic prices have not seen any changes from late last week. The heavy rains and floods in Hanoi have made gold transactions stagnate.

At 10.30 am Hanoi time, today, November 3, the spot gold price in Asia increased by $10/oz over last week’s New York closing price to $735/oz.

The gold price for December delivery at NYMEX at the same time reportedly was at $731.3/oz, up by $13.1/oz.

Meanwhile, domestic prices at the same time were as follows: SJC gold was quoted on the company’s website at VND16.6mil/tael (purchase) and VND16.7mil/tael (sale), the same levels as Saturday, November 1.

As such, with the world’s spot price at 10.30 am, today at VND14.9mil/tael, the world’s price was around VND1.8mil/tael lower than the domestic price (taxes and other expenses not tabulated).

Explaining why domestic firms’ prices have stayed the same while the world’s prices have increased, some gold traders say that the heavy rains and floods in northern provinces have made transactions on the market stagnate.

Tran Huu Dang, Business Director of Bao Tin Minh Chau Company, said that very few people were making transactions at present so domestic prices would not go up unless the world’s prices rose sharply.

The recovery of the gold price has been attributed to the devaluation of the dollar against the euro. Late this morning in Tokyo, one euro was converted to $1.2848 (the rate was 1Euro = $1.2739 late last week in New York).

However, international analysts have warned that this week could witness the drop of gold prices as ECB may slash the euro interest rate, which would push up the value of the greenback.

One more Asian country has joined the movement of slashing interest rates. The Indian central bank has unexpectedly cut the rupiah primary interest rate from 8% to 7.5%.
At 11 am Hanoi time, today, light sweet oil with December delivery in New York was reportedly at $68.9/barrel, an increase of $1.09/barrel over the previous trading session.
The interbank exchange market rate announced by the State Bank of Vietnam for today has decreased to VND16,510/US$1. Meanwhile, Vietcombank’s dollar price has increased by VND5/US$1 over last Friday to VND16,800/US$1 (purchase) and VND16,835/US$1 (sale).