Gold retreats on global correction

Most gold shops bought the metal at VND39.85 million and sold at VND39.95 million as of 10 am local time.

Sacombank Jewelry Company quoted the price at VND39.9 million for buying and VND39.94 million for selling.

Hanoi-based Bao Tin Minh Chau Jewelry purchased gold at VND39.85 million and sold at VND39.94 million.

Domestically, gold fetched around VND200,000 a tael lower than global price.

According to jewelers, trading on bullion market was muted yesterday as investors became cautious although the price highly jumped to nearly VND40.1 million a tael. This morning, many jewelers reduced the gap between buying and selling price to boost trading.

State-owned Vietcombank continued to buy the greenback at VND20,560 and sell at VND20,610. The inter-bank exchange rate stood firmly at VND20,608 per dollar for nearly three weeks.

Internationally, gold unexpectedly edged down by the end of the trading session as a rally to record prompted investors to sell the metal to cover losses of other investment channels. Yesterday, Wall Street experienced the worst trading session in the past eight weeks.

Gold for immediate delivery lost as much as $5.8 an ounce, or 0.4 percent, to close at $1,615.1 an ounce on the Comex in New York.

In Asia, the metal faintly swung between $1,614 and $1,616 an ounce this morning.

However, concerns over the possibility of a US default or a cut of its AAA credit rating still supported bullion price. In addition, Standard & Poor’s cut Greece’s credit rating to CC, two steps above default, from CCC. The rating company said that Greece will partially default once European officials push through a second bailout plan for the nation.

SPDR Gold Trust, the largest exchange traded fund backed by bullion, bought 3 metric tons, increasing its holdings to 1,244.8 metric tons.

The euro exchange rate against the US dollar fell to $1.43 a euro in Tokyo this morning from $1.45 the previous day.

Crude oil futures for September delivery slid $2.19 a barrel to close at $97.4 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

This morning, crude oil lost $0.55 a barrel to trade at $96.85 a barrel as of 10:10 am Vietnamese time.