Gold ring prices jump to all-time high

Prices of pure gold rings in Vietnam have been rising, reaching new heights on Monday after the U.S. Fed announced the first rate cut in four years.

Privately-run Doji Group quoted its pure gold rings at VND8.01-8.12 million ($318.9-323.28) a mace (one-tenth of a tael or 3.75 grams) for bids and asks at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, up from VND7.995-8.11 million at noon.

Similarly, at Bao Tin Minh Chau, the price of pure gold rings was fixed at VND7.998-8.108 million ($318.42-322.80) a mace, up VND550,000 ($21.90) from the close last weekend.

State-owned SJC was offering pure gold rings at VND7.95-8.08 million ($316.51-321.69) a mace.

Prices of pure gold rings have increased VND1.4 million ($55.74) a tael over the past week and VND2.55 million ($101.5) a tael since the start of this month.

Meanwhile, prices of SJC-branded gold bars moved sideways, hovering at VND80-82 million ($3,185-3,264.66) a tael on Monday, unchanged from the previous day.

As such, the gap between pure gold rings and SJC gold bars has been narrowed considerably to less than VND1 million ($39.8) a tael.

On the international market, Kitco spot gold price stood at $2,616.8 an ounce at the time of writing, easing from a peak of $2,635 on Sunday.

The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), which measures the strength of the greenback, rose 0.44% to 101.16 at 3:45 p.m. (Hanoi time), easing from around 106 in July.

The Vietnamese central bank resumed gold bar auctions in late April after an 11-year hiatus but stopped this activity a month later as prices continued to go up although over 1.8 tons of gold was injected into the market via auctions.

The central bank then sold gold bars via state-controlled commercial banks and SJC. The gold price gap between Vietnam and global markets has been reduced since.