State Bank announces 4th gold bar auction to stabilise prices

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) on May 7 announced a morning auction for a total of 16,800 taels of gold in Hanoi on May 8.

Accordingly, the quantity of SBV-produced SJC gold bars for one transaction lot is 100 taels. The deposit ratio when participating in the auction is 10%, and the reference price for calculating the deposit value is 85.3 million VND (3,412 USD) per tael. In addition, the minimum bidding volume for a member is seven lots, equivalent to 700 taels, and the maximum volume is 20 lots.

Each bidding member is only allowed to register one minimum price equal to or higher than the floor price announced by the central bank.

Three auctions of this kind have been held to date. Only the one on April 23 took place as planned, resulting in two winning members with a total volume of 34 lots (3,400 taels). The highest and lowest winning bid price logged were 82.33 million VND and 81.32 million VND per tael, respectively.

According to economic experts, the SBV's organisation of gold auctions is to bring a large amount of gold into circulation, contributing to stabilising supply and demand, and narrowing the gap between domestic and world gold prices as well as between buying and selling prices.

On May 7, the domestic gold price continued to soar. At 4:22 p.m., the listed SJC gold price was at 85.3 million VND/tael (buying) and 87.5 million VND/tael (selling), an increase of 1 million VND/tael in both buying and selling directions compared to the closing prices the day before.