The US dollar listed at commercial banks on Monday appreciated sharply against the dong right after the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) ceased its intervention on the exchange rate.

After three weeks of selling the dollar cheaply to commercial banks to stabilise the exchange rate in the domestic market, the central bank this morning adjusted up its selling rate by nearly 1 per cent against last Friday.

With the move, commercial banks now have to buy the dollar from the central bank’s Operation Centre at VND23,273 per dollar against VND23,050 of last Friday.

In contrast to the price hike in the central bank’s Operation Centre, the central bank’s daily reference exchange rate – which regulates the ceiling and floor trading prices for commercial banks during the day – on Monday continued the downward trend against last Friday, down VND16 to VND22,644 per dollar.

With the current trading band of +/- 3 percent, the ceiling rate applied to commercial banks during the day is VND23,323 per dollar and the floor rate VND21,965 per dollar.

Right after the central bank hiked its dollar selling price to commercial banks, State-owned Vietcombank on Monday raised rates sharply by VND145 and VND165 for buying and selling to VND23,150 and VND23,220 per dollar, respectively.

The rising rate at private commercial banks was even higher, at VND200 per dollar. Sacombank, for example, listed the dollar at VND23,300 for selling, just VND23 lower than the cap regulated by the central bank.

Eximbank also appreciated the dollar strongly by VND200 against the dong to list the greenback at VND23,290 for selling.

In the unofficial market, the dollar on Monday was traded at VND23,300.

It is estimated that commercial banks bought a total of US$1.77 billion from the central bank at the cheap price of VND23,050 per dollar last week. — VNS