Central bank postpones gold bullion auction due to low participation

SJC gold bar at at a shop in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

It had planned to hold the auction for 16,800 taels (a tael equals 37.5 gm or 1.2 ounces) of gold bullion at 10 a.m. Monday morning.

But an hour before the scheduled start, it announced the cancelation saying "There were not enough businesses who have registered for the event and paid deposits."

The event had been put off to the same time the next day. So far 15 businesses have been given permission to bid, it said.

To participate in Tuesday's auction, businesses must register and place their deposits today, it added.

The starting price has been set at VND81.8 million ($3,214.77) per tael, and bidders need to deposit 10% of their purchase value. The bids will be in multiples of 100 taels.

The auction is expected to boost the supply of the precious metal amid record high prices, the bank said.

Gold bullion price was at VND83.5 million ($3,253.4) per tael on Monday morning, down 0.42% from the weekend. It previously hit a historic peak of VND85.5 million per tael on April 15.

The last time it sold gold bullion was in 2013 when over 1.8 million taels were offloaded through a total of 76 auctions.