Difficult to buy gold bars, "bite the bullet" to buy gold rings
Because his son is getting married at the end of the year, these days, Mr. Pham Van Thai (54 years old, Ha Nam) is restless as the price of gold rings has increased to a record high.
"I withdrew all my savings to buy gold as a dowry for my son. Every day I check my phone to see if the price of gold has increased or decreased.
However, in recent days, buying gold bars or gold rings has been very difficult. For example, Bao Tin Minh Chau Cau Giay branch refused me several times, saying they were out of gold bars. I switched to buying gold rings but still had to wait all morning to get a voucher to buy 5 taels of gold" - Mr. Thai shared.
The shortage of gold bars at jewelry stores in Hanoi has been evident for several months now. Recently, the demand for gold in preparation for weddings has increased, and many people have also bought gold to store in the hope that the price of gold will continue to increase.
Ms. Phan Thi Phuong (Cau Giay, Hanoi) shared: "Last weekend, I lined up to buy gold rings at Bao Tin Minh Chau but when it was my turn, there were no more tickets. I also withdrew my savings ahead of schedule to buy gold but I couldn't buy it."
Mr. Tran Quoc Binh (44 years old, Hanoi) said that last weekend, he had to wait nearly 2 hours at a gold shop to buy 1 tael of gold.
"Many people also waited in line all morning, and when it was their turn, all the tickets were gone," said Mr. Binh.
"Don't be foolish to sell"
Talking to Lao Dong, Dr. Chau Dinh Linh - Financial expert, said: Looking from the market perspective, businesses trading in gold, silver and gemstones must make a profit from the difference between the buying and selling prices.
Remember, at the beginning of the year, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) organized a gold bar auction with high prices, many businesses bought in large quantities. At that time, there were auctions with the highest winning price up to 88.89 million VND/tael.
Then, when the State Bank of Vietnam sells gold through commercial banks, the gold price is listed at a lower level. Although the gold selling price of commercial banks is also referenced to the world gold price, the price does not reflect the true price. This also explains why many gold and silver businesses keep gold instead of selling it. Obviously, the difference between buying at the auction and selling at this time causes businesses to suffer losses.
"Gold businesses will not be foolish enough to sell. I have also gone to gold shops to buy gold, but in reality, someone has to sell it to the gold shop, then the gold shop will collect it to sell again, thereby earning the difference" - Dr. Linh said.
Dr. Linh said that for gold rings, the price of this item always reflects the market price very quickly. Currently, the price of gold rings has increased very high. More than a month ago, Dr. Linh went to buy gold rings for 76 million VND/tael. At that time, he also saw the price of gold rings at a high level.
"Gold rings have high liquidity and are not affected by brand name. People only care about the gold index and the age of the gold, so buyers of gold rings can sell them anywhere.
The current high price of gold rings is due to the tradition of buying gold to save among Vietnamese people. In addition, this is also the wedding season, so it also affects the price of gold rings.
The second reason is because of the speculative group, when this group sees the gold price fluctuate, they will also consider speculating. But speculating on gold bars is impossible. So they realize that when speculating on gold rings, the opportunities and influence of our State are not many and help them to make a difference" - Dr. Linh shared.
According to Dr. Linh, every supply has its limits, the State Bank will not be able to use the method of selling gold through commercial banks forever. Instead, there needs to be a solution, a long-term view to restore the nature of the market.
"When the USD exchange rate has cooled down, the State Bank has more room to operate monetary policy. Therefore, it is time to think about better managing the gold market through issuing a new Decree on gold market management or amending the old Decree.
We have many other more important tasks to do. In the long term, we must return legitimate investment, making the gold market more transparent and smooth. We only manage so that the gold price changes appropriately according to the world gold price" - Dr. Linh shared.
