Banks take no action in gold bar trade

A jewelry center of Agribank in District 1 posts up a banner that reads
‘Gold bar trading point’ on Thursday

>> Market is good as gold

A teller of a branch of Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) told the Daily that this bank had yet to launch gold bar business across its network, and this branch was not cleared to trade gold on Thursday.

This teller also said gold bar sale staff should be well trained to identify fake and copycat gold before transacting with customers.

A branch of Maritime Commercial Bank in District 1 also received no guidelines on gold bar trading from its head office. Therefore, staff of this branch told customers to transact gold at other bank branches.

The central bank has also issued Circular 38 requiring credit institutions to keep their gold position not exceed 2 pct of their chartered capital and obtain a positive position with gold by the end of each day.

According to an expert, this regulation gives banks the right to stop buying or selling gold to secure their designated gold holding. Therefore, people will not be able to buy or sell gold to bank branches at any time.

People in need of gold transaction will be placed at a disadvantage as most qualified gold bar trading points are bank branches, the expert said.

Many enterprises and citizens were rushing to sell gold on Thursday for fears of a further decline in gold prices.

Saigon Jewelry Holding Company (SJC) reported strong selling in the morning, mostly by jewelry stores that lack a license to trade gold bars. Meanwhile, selling by the public increased slightly compared to previous days.

As a result, domestic gold prices slumped sharply, narrowing down the gap with the world price to around VND3.5 million a tael. However, lower gold prices lured back buyers from 2:00 p.m.

Nguyen Cong Tuong, SJC deputy sales manager, said total trading volume had amounted to around 1,300 taels as of 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, and that there was a pickup in selling by the public.

Transactions at jewelry retail stores also turned active. Kim Ngoc Phu gold shop in HCMC’s District 6 saw the number of clients doubling over previous days.

Most clients to this shop sold gold as they were worrying that gold prices would dip. As of 3:00 p.m., the store bought 500 gold taels and sold around 15 taels.

SJC at 4:00 p.m. quoted gold at VND45.8 million and VND46.08 million per tael for buying and selling respectively, or VND3.7 million higher than the world price. Last week, the difference widened to over VND5 million for a tael.