Kolkata: Gold scaled a new milestone on Tuesday, crossing ₹1.10 lakh per ten grams, a few days ahead of the country’s biggest consumption period, turning jewellers cautious about impact on consumer demand. Jewellers expect sales this festive season to be largely driven by exchanging old gold with modern designer pieces.
Gold is currently being retailed at ₹1,10,540 per 10 gm in the physical market, according to the India Bullion & Jewellers Association (IBJA). With 3% GST, consumers will have to shell out ₹1,13,856 for 10 gm of gold.
“We are expecting the old gold exchange to surge to 45% this festive season as compared to 20-25% last year,” said Saurabh Gadgil, managing director of PNG Jewellers. “Gold volume may shrink by up to 15% during the upcoming festive season because of the price rise but value-wise it is expected to go up by 25-30% as prices have appreciated,” he said.
Last year, during this time, gold was at around ₹80,000 per 10 gm with GST. Gold price has appreciated by 42% year-on-year, becoming a favourite asset class to investors worldwide.
Surendra Mehta, national secretary of IBJA, said since consumers have understood that gold prices are unlikely to fall below ₹1 lakh any soon, they have slowly started returning to the retail outlets.
“In the last one week, there has been good movement of gold in Mumbai’s Zaveri Bazar, one of the leading gold trading hubs in Asia,” he said. “Investment demand for gold is also rising as there is no sign of gold to cool off any time soon. The market is now awaiting gold to cross $4,000 per troy ounce mark.”
Internationally, gold has surged to an all-time high, touching $3,670 per troy ounce.
