VietNamNet Bridge - Any happening in the world, from war, gold price fluctuations to politicians’ speeches can have an immediate impact on the Vietnamese market.

The US dollar price in the open market, for example, depends on the gold price performance in the world market. The unwritten laws have existed for decades. The dollar price increases once the gold price decreases in the world market, and vice versa.

Early in the morning of April 14, when the world gold price was at $1,204-1,205 per ounce, domestic gold shops quoted dollar prices at VND21,640-21,650 per dollar.

At 3 pm on the same day, when the gold price dropped to $1,190 per ounce, the dollar price in Vietnam soared to VND21,650-21,670 per dollar. The dollar seller will say “because the dollar price depends on the gold price” if he is asked why the dollar price increased so rapidly.

In Hanoi and HCM City, laptops, desktops and large screens are available at every gold shop for shop owners and visitors to check the international gold price in accordance with kitco.com. Gold shop owners update data in English better than researchers.

The gold price in the world has an impact on the dollar price in Vietnam because when the gold price goes down, speculators would collect dollars to smuggle gold, thus making the dollar demand up.

An analyst noted that in HCM City, when buyers order $5-7 million in cash in total, the market prices would see fluctuations.

Not only dong and dollar prices can have influence on the Vietnamese stock index, but other currencies, including euro, yen and ruble, also have power. This is because many listed companies have debts in these currencies or have traded with Russian partners.

Securities investors these days spend much time keeping watch over the crude oil price in the world market because the prices of oil and gas firms’ stocks have a major impact on the VN Index.

The crude oil price has been escalating over the last two weeks from $44 per barrel to $54 per barrel. Analysts are tending to predict the business performance of GAS, PVD, PVS, PVC, PVT – the oil and gas firms – on the basis of the $60 per barrel oil price threshold.

The restructuring of commercial banks is the hottest topic in investors’ and officials’ discussions. However, the bank share prices remain immovable since the beginning of the year. 

It is the oil price and the decisions by the US Federal Reserve which Vietnamese investors are interested in. The fact that some domestic bankers have proposed to lower the dong deposit interest rate is believed to have a weaker impact on the market than the speed of the FED Chair’s decisions.

TBKTSG