HÀ NỘI — The US dollar listed at commercial banks on Monday appreciated sharply against the đồng right after the State Bank of Việt 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 VNĐ23,273 per dollar against VNĐ23,050 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 VNĐ16 to VNĐ22,644  per dollar. 

With the current trading band of +/- 3 percent, the ceiling rate applied to commercial banks during the day is VNĐ23,323 per dollar and the floor rate VNĐ21,965 per dollar. 

Right after the central bank hiked its dollar selling price to commercial banks, State-owned Vietcombank on Monday raised rates sharply by VNĐ145 and VNĐ165 for buying and selling to VNĐ23,150 and VNĐ23,220 per dollar, respectively. 

The rising rate at private commercial banks was even higher, at VNĐ200 per dollar. Sacombank, for example, listed the dollar at VNĐ23,300 for selling, just VNĐ23 lower than the cap regulated by the central bank.

Eximbank also appreciated the dollar strongly by VNĐ200 against the đồng to list the greenback at VNĐ23,290 for selling.

In the unofficial market, the dollar on Monday was traded at VNĐ23,300.

It is estimated that commercial banks bought a total of US$1.77 billion from the central bank at the cheap price of VNĐ23,050 per dollar last week. — VNS