Bullion market cools down

Sacombank Jewelry Company bought gold at VND44.01 million and sold at VND44.59 million this morning.

Hanoi branch Saigon Jewelry Company purchased the metal at VND44.1 million and sold at VND44.52 million at the same time.

Domestically, gold fetched around VND500,000 a tael higher than global price.

The US exchange rate tended to be stable after changing wildly for a few days. The inter-bank exchange rate stayed at VND20,618 per dollar for the third day. State-owned Vietcombank bought the greenback at VND20,814 and sold at VND20,824. Asia Commercial Bank collected dollars at VND20,800, and sold at VND20,824. Eximbank quoted the price at VND20,850 for buying and VND20,900 for selling.

On free market, dollars were bought at VND20,850, and sold at VND20,900, an increase of VND30 per dollar in buying price over the previous day.

Internationally, gold fell for two straight days, paring the best weekly advance since January 2009, as a recovery in equities and higher margins on futures encouraged sales after the metal climbed to its highest ever above $1,800 an ounce.

Stocks rebounded as an unexpected drop in US jobless claims eased concern the world’s largest economy may slip into recession. A report showed first-time applications for jobless benefits fell to a four-month low of 395,000.

Gold for immediate delivery sank as much as $27.8 an ounce over the previous trading session, or 1.6 percent, to close at $1,768.6 an ounce on the Comex in New York. Earlier, the metal plunged to $1,731 an ounce.

In Asia, losing momentum prolonged to the trading session this morning. Spot gold gave up $14.6 an ounce over the closing price in New York to trade at $1,754 an ounce as of 8:15 am Vietnamese time.

Holdings at SPDR Gold Trust, the largest exchange traded fund backed by bullion reduced by 24 metric ton to 1,272.9 metric tons, the company’s website showed. The fund net sold 37 metric tons in the past four trading sessions.