VN registers strongest bullion demand since 2015

VIETNAM, May 7 -  

HÀ NỘI — The World Gold Council’s demand trends report for the first quarter of this year showed that Việt Nam gold demand was strong in the quarter, supporting record-high prices.

The report pointed out that Việt Nam registered the strongest bar and coin demand in the first quarter of this year since 2015, at over 14 tonnes.

Việt Nam experienced a 12 per cent year-on-year rise in demand for gold bars and coin investments, with total consumer demand increasing by 6 per cent year-on-year

Local investors were attracted by gold’s outstanding performance during the quarter, particularly in the face of rising energy prices – which are expected to fuel inflation – and local currency depreciation against the dollar, according to the World Gold Council. Premiums on gold bars reportedly reached a record of US$650 per tael in the quarter.

However, demand for gold jewellery in the first quarter in Việt Nam registered a fifth consecutive year-on-year decline. Demand was 10 per cent lower at four tonnes – the lowest first quarter since 2015.

Despite a flurry of demand in February around Tết (the Lunar New Year celebrations and God of Fortune Day), demand was heavily impacted by the high price of gold.

In the global market, the total global gold demand (inclusive of over-the-counter purchases) was up 3 per cent year-on-year to 1,238 tonnes, marking the strongest first quarter since 2016.

Healthy investment from the OTC market, persistent central buying and higher demand from Asian buyers helped drive the gold price to a record quarterly average of $2,070 per tael, 10 per cent higher year-on-year and 5 per cent higher quarter-on-quarter.

Central banks continued to buy gold apace, adding 290 tonnes to official global holdings during the quarter. Consistent and substantial purchases by the official sector highlight gold's importance in international reserve portfolios amidst market volatility and increased risk.

“Currency devaluation was a common theme among the ASEAN markets. This fuelled safe-haven/wealth-preservation demand for gold, as well as attracting investors with superlative returns in local prices,” Shaokai Fan, head of Asia-Pacific (ex-China) & global head of Central Banks at the World Gold Council said.

According to Louise Street, senior markets analyst at the World Gold Council, since March the gold price has climbed to all-time highs, despite traditional headwinds of a strong US dollar and interest rates that are proving to be 'higher for longer'.

“A number of factors are behind the recent surge including heightened geopolitical risk and ongoing macro- economic uncertainty driving safe-haven demand for gold. In addition, the continued and resolute demand from central banks, strong OTC investment and increased net buying in the derivatives market, have all contributed to the higher price of gold,” Louise said.

“Looking ahead, 2024 is likely to produce a much stronger return for gold than we anticipated at the beginning of the year, based on its recent performance. Should the price level off in the coming months, some price-sensitive buyers may re-enter the market and investors will continue to look to gold for a safe haven asset as they seek clarity around rate cuts and election results.” — VNS

SJC sets new record on Tuesday HÀ NỘI — SJC gold price set a record on Tuesday morning at VNĐ87.4 million (US$3,496) per tael. At 1pm, SJC was listed at VNĐ85.300 million for bidding and VNĐ87.5 million for asking, VNĐ1 million higher than Monday. In comparison, the spot gold on Kitco was at $2,321.9 for bidding and $2,322.9 for asking. The difference between domestic and world gold prices has widened from around VNĐ11 million to VNĐ16 million since the State Bank of Việt Nam started to carry out gold auctions with the aim of stablising the domestic gold market. Since then however the SJC gold price has returned to an upward trend. During the past two weeks, the central bank opened four bids on April 22, April 23, April 25 and May 1. However, three were cancelled due the lack of bidders.   Only the action on April 23 was carried out with a winning bid of 3,400 tael at the highest winning price of VNĐ82.33 million per tael and lowest price of VNĐ81.32 per tael. On the same day, SJC gold price was listed at VNĐ81 million for bidding and VNĐ83.3 million for asking. — VNS