No dip in demand for pricey gold

No dip in demand for pricey gold

Despite prediction of decreasing gold sale by 50 per cent this Dhanteras and Diwali, compared with last year, jewellers and bankers here are upbeat as far as volume of sales is concerned.

Proving this are the crowd gathering in jewellery showrooms though Dhanteras is more than a week away. The trend of buying gold on the occasion is not an Odia tradition, but it has turned into one here in the past few years.

 If the Durga puja trend is any indication, analysts feel gold buyers will stick to the budget system of buying gold rather than weight system though the price is likely to hit over `32,000 per 10 grams during Diwali.

 “The price is no more affecting people who have a fixed budget to purchase gold. It is more about an amount that people earmark to buy gold during this season. The quantity of sales has certainly come down, but volume has grown and the trend will continue till the end of the season,” said Sanjay Hans, Director, Lalchand Jewellers, here.

Terming it as a bad phase for jewellers, Hans also said customers these days prefer buying diamonds instead of gold. “For `10,000, one gets a better diamond ring than gold. So we are witnessing a surge in diamond sales since the day gold rates touched `28,000 mark,” he adds.

 There is hardly any scope for gold prices to come down in the coming days due to devaluation of the rupee.

“Indian buyers are wise enough to invest in the yellow metal. Gold buyers could concentrate on gold coins and bricks instead of ornaments and we offer better rates for 24 karat gold. We have also added silver to our portfolio keeping the demand for the white metal in mind,” asserts Circle Head, Axis Bank, Debarchan Mishra.

 Terming the devaluation of rupee as having a reverse impact, Mishra says this trend is a national phenomenon and increases the buying propensity. “People are aware of gold price never falling beyond a certain level. So, for them, investment in gold is a sound decision”, he says.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com