Gold surges to VND43.7 million

Sacombank Jewelry Company bought gold at VND43.4 million and sold at VND43.7 million as of 8:50am Vietnamese time.

Saigon Jewelry Company, the biggest gold processor and trader in Vietnam, collected gold at VND43.4 million and sold at VND43.7 million as of 8:02am Vietnamese time.

Hanoi-based Phu Quy Jewelry Company purchased SJC-brand gold at VND43.45 million and sold at VND43.73 million as of 9:52am Vietnamese time.

Meanwhile, Bao Tin Minh Chau Jewelry Company quoted the price at VND42.4 million for buying, and VND42.7 million for selling at 11:20am Vietnamese time.

Domestic gold fetched VND1.9 million, higher than global price.

On the free market, the dollar exchange rate recovered this morning. In Hanoi, dollars were bought at VND21,080 per dollar, and sold at VND21,110 per dollar, an increase of VND20 per dollar in buying price, and VND10 per dollar in selling price over the previous day.

Internationally, gold rose thanks to purchasing demand in China and India, and concerns over the European sovereign-debt crisis after Fitch warned the European Central Bank to ramp up its debt purchases to avoid a cataclysmic collapse of the single currency, sinking the euro to a 16-month low against the dollar.   

Gold for immediate delivery gained as much as $10.8 an ounce, or 0.7 percent, to close at $1,644 an ounce on the Comex in New York.

Statistics showed that China’s inflation eased for the fifth consecutive month, boosting expectation that the People’s Bank of China will loosen its monetary policy.

Holdings at SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest exchange traded fund backed by bullion, increased for the first time in two weeks, edging up by 0.4 metric tons to 1,254.2 metric tons.

In Asia, gold for immediate delivery slid slightly $0.4 an ounce to trade at $1,643.6 an ounce at 10:35 am Vietnamese time.

The euro exchange rate against the US dollar was just above $1.27 a euro in Tokyo this morning.

Today, the market will closely watch the first Spain bond auction and the ECB's first monetary policy announcement and interest rate decision for 2012.