VietNamNet Bridge – Gold shops yesterday (September 20) were overcrowded with buyers with the trading volume higher by 2-3 times than ordinary days. People rushed to buy gold even though the domestic price is much higher than the world’s price, and the supply is profuse after enterprises have got the quota for import.

People came to gold shops early in the morning, after hearing that the SJC-brand gold price decreased to the month’s deepest low 46.4-46.6 million dong per tael. And they rushed to gold shops later on the day on the news that the gold price moved up slightly, because they feared that a new price increase wave would begin.

“There were so many buyers that we did not have break time,” a senior executive of DOJI, a gold, silver and precious stone trade group. The trading volume at the group had reached 7000 taels by 4 pm of September 20, which was double that of ordinary days.

Most of the customers bought tens of taels of gold, others bought several taels, while a few of them bought up to 100-200 taels of gold.

Bao Tin Minh Chau has also reported the sharp increase in the trading volume in comparison with previous days. There were nine buyers out of every 10 visitors.

Nguyen Thi Cuc, Deputy General Director of PNJ, also said that yesterday was really a bustling business day, since the gold price decreased to the lowest level so far this month. PNJ sold 3600 taels of gold yesterday and bought 900 taels.

“It’s so strange that the gold purchase wave can be seen in HCM City as well,” Cuc said.

According to Nguyen Cong Tuong, a senior executive of SJC, people rush to buy gold because they believe that the gold prices have become low enough to purchase. The trading volume of SJC’s chain was 9000 taels yesterday, and most of customers were buyers.

The world’s price fluctuated heavily yesterday with the price once dropping to 1770 dollars per oz and then rising to 1795 dollars per oz. The price on Kitco.com was reportedly at 1792 dollars per oz at 5.45 pm, or 45.4 million dong per tael. Meanwhile, domestic gold companies yesterday quoted the gold prices at high levels, around 46.80-46.95 million dong per tael, or 1.4 million dong per tael higher than the world’s price.

“Customers understand that they won’t be able to buy gold at the prices equal to the world’s prices at this moment. Therefore, they would buy when they see the prices decrease to the low enough levels,” an executive of Bao Tin Minh Chau said, explaining why people accept to buy gold at high prices.

Meanwhile, some experts believe that the gold is in high demand because of the speculation.

Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam also many times affirmed that employees do not have much money to buy tens of taels of gold at once. Therefore, the current buyers now could be the speculators, who create a virtual high demand.

Gold companies have affirmed that the supply is profuse. PNJ said the company, together with PNJ, DOJI and some others, have received the quotas for importing gold.

The dollar price tends to increase in the black market. On September 20 afternoon, the dollar price in Hanoi increased by 20 dong per dollar over the price of the day before. The foreign exchange shops on Ha Trung Street purchased dollars at 21,050 dong per dollar and sold at 21,080 dong.

Source: VnExpress