Hanoi, May 16 -- Eleven bidders bought a total of 12,300 out of the 16,800 taels of SJC-branded gold bullion that the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) offered for sale at an auction held on May 16.

The central bank said the highest winning price was 88.92 million VND (nearly 3,500 USD) and the lowest 88.89 million VND per tael. A tael equals 37.5 grams or 1.2 ounces.

The reference price for calculating the deposit value stood at 87.5 million VND per tael.

The minimum bidding volume of the auction was five lots, equivalent to 500 taels. Meanwhile, the maximum bidding volume per member was 40 lots.

Since April 19, the SBV organised six gold auctions, of them three successful with 14,900 taels sold, while the remainder failing to attract bidd...