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Central bank to auction nearly 17,000 taels of gold next week
Fri April 19 2024
The State Bank of Vietnam will sell 16,800 taels of gold bullion to businesses on Monday, with the goal of augmenting the supply of precious metals amidst soaring prices. This move is intended to foster the stable operation of the domestic market. So far 15 businesses have been given permission to buy, and they need to make bids specifying volume and price and make a deposit of 10%, the central bank said in a statement Friday.
The minimum price will be VND81.8 million ($3,214.77) per tael, 2.4% lower than the closing price on the market Friday. A tael equals 37.5 grams or 1.2 ounces. Buyers can place orders for 1,400-2,000 taels. The bidding mechanism will enable the central bank to know who the buyers, the demand and the price buyers are willing to pay.
It will import gold based on the auction outcome, and cancel the bidding if it cannot buy enough. Globally prices have been rising to record levels recently. As of Friday spot gold was up 0.7% to US$2,395.15 per ounce. Vietnam’s gold reserves as of November last year were worth $660 million, according to market researcher CEIC Data. The central bank does not publish figures on the reserves.
The last time the central bank sold gold bars was in 2013 when over 1.8 million taels were offloaded, with a total of 76 auctions.
Source: https://e.vnexpress.net/