Gold falls for second day

Gold falls for second day

By Thanh Thuong - The Saigon Times Daily

Pham Hoang An (C), director of the gold trading center of Sacombank-SBJ, and Bui Viet Cuong (R), head of investment consultancy at Vietnam Gold Trading and Investment Co., take questions from Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon Online readers at the dialogue on Thursday - Photo: Yen Dung HCMC – Gold drifted lower for the second day in a row on the domestic market yesterday after hitting an all-time high of VND22 million per tael on Tuesday.

The yellow metal traded down by VND80,000 per tael (a tael = 1.2 troy ounces) yesterday at VND21.88 million at Saigon Jewelry Holding Company, the country’s leading gold trading house.

But Pham Hoang An, director of Sacombank-SBJ, a gold and jewelry arm of the Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank, said yesterday gold was seen surging again as the U.S. dollar had recently been battered.

Gold seems to be on course to target the record high of US$1,030 an ounce hit in March 2008, he said at an online dialogue arranged yesterday by Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon Online, the online newspaper published by Saigon Times Group.

China has recently reduced dollars in its reserves and used gold instead, and other countries have followed suit, thereby causing gold to surge and battering the greenback, An said.

If gold hovers below US$1,000 an ounce, the possibility of price adjustment is higher, he said, and if the price is lower than the US$970-980 range, the upward trend will be over.

But if it is above the US$1,007 level, it will target the record high of US$1,030, he said.

Bui Viet Cuong, head of investment consultancy at Vietnam Gold Trading and Investment Co., told the online dialogue that gold would target the US$985-1,007 range in the next few days but if it hovered near US$985, it would decline to the US$970-973 range.

However, current market movements indicate the curve might be moving up strongly, he noted.