Friday, July 20, 2007

Gold prices skyrocket along with global trends

Gold prices in the local market continued to escalate on July 20 as 20,000 VND (1.25 USD) was tacked onto the per tael price that pushed unit prices past the 13 million VND mark.

Sai Gon Jewelry Holdings Co. (SJC)’s 99.99 gold price reflected the spike as it was trading between 13-13.07 million VND per tael in Ha Noi by the morning of July 20.

Domestic gold traders attributed the price hike to an increase in gold prices on the world market that was caused by the slippage of the US dollar and the growing price of crude oil.

In Hong Kong, gold rose by 3.2 USD per ounce from the July 19 trading session to 675.7-676.2 USD per ounce (equivalent to 13.137-13.146 million VND per tael).

Viet Nam’s demand for gold has grown sharply over the past years and now surpasses 70 tonnes a year. In 2006, the country imported 86 tonnes of gold, a year-on-year increase of 41 percent.

According to the Viet Nam Gold Business Association (VGBA), although the volume of gold hoarded by locals remained high, businesses have still splurged hundreds of millions of USD to import gold from abroad.

In a recent move, the association submitted a second request to the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) for permission to export ingot gold. Currently, local companies can only import gold and trade on the local market after receiving central bank approval.

”Exporting would help us manage short term output and input more easily,” said SJC general director Nguyen Thanh Long.

Source: VNA

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