Dhanteras — heralding the biggest gold buying festival — failed to light up consumers’ buying spirit at the domestic bullion hub here. Subuded demand from jewellery stockists and retail buyers in the midst of high volatile global situation mainly kept precious metals under pressure.
Despite domestic prices ruling at lower levels compared to the last year buyers prefered to stay on the sidelines awaiting further price dips amid global uncertainty. The introduction of mega gold-related schemes the gold monetisation scheme and the sovereign gold bond scheme by the government ahead of Dhanteras and Diwali aimed at providing an alternative to buying physical gold also took some sheen off yellow-metal, a bullion trader said.
Elsewhere, silver also fell back to close below the significant Rs 36,000-mark on the back of heavy speculative unwinding. Dhanteras is the first day of the five-day Diwali festival is extremely significant and customory buying of gold and silver jewellery are considered to be auspicious to augment this celebration.
Standard gold (99.5 purity) slumped by Rs 120 to end at Rs 25,800 per 10 grams - lowest level in one month as against Friday’s closing level of Rs 25,920. Pure gold (99.9 purity) also shed by a similar margin to settle at Rs 25,950 per 10 grams from Rs 26,070 previously. Silver (.999 fineness) declined by Rs 150 per kg to finish at Rs 35,980 from Rs 36,130 previously.
In worldwide trade, the shiny-metal staged a modest rebound from its three-month low on heavy short-covering as well as value buying after a stronger-than-expected jobs data reinforced confidence for US Federal Reserve to raise its key interest rate targetfor the first time in nearly a decade. Spot was trading higher at USD 1,093 an ounce in early European session, while silver quoted almost flat at USD 14.73 an ounce.
However, Gold and silver coins, including those bearing Ashok Chakra, are getting some extra shine on Dhanteras today instead of jewellery as consumers are on a buying spree lured by lower prices.
Dhanteras is considered to be an auspicious day for buying gold, silver and other valuables and is largely celebrated in North and West India.
According to jewellers and MMTC-PAMP India, the buying activity remained robust in the first half of the day at most places. But more sales are expected later in the day, with office-goers coming in for buying late in the evening.
“Consumers are buying for an auspicious reason. More than jewellery, there is a strong demand for gold and silver coins. We see sales of gold coins to rise by up to 25 per cent and silver coins may double from last Dhanteras,” MMTC-PAMP India President (marketing) Vipin Raina said.
There’s demand for Ashok Chakra coins as well, which were launched recently by the Prime Minister and are being sold through 125 MMTC outlets across the country, he added. Raina felt that demand for gold and silver, which has improved in the last few days buoyed by low prices, is “certainly better” than last year’s.
Bombay Bullion Association former president Suresh Hundia said, “There is more demand for gold and silver coins in smaller value up to 10 grams. The jewellery demand is not much despite prices being lower by Rs 1,000 per 10 gram compared with the previous Dhanteras.”
The brisk buying is continuing at Khanna Jewellers, P P Jewellers, Manohar Lal Sarraf and Sons Jewellery, Radhey Shyam and Co Jewellers and Omsons Jewellers, among others, in Delhi. The complete sales figures would be known late at night.
Gold prices in the national capital have risen by Rs 120 per 10 grams today from the previous close, but the rates are lower by over six per cent at Rs 26,230 today, as against Rs 27,925 on Dhanteras in 2014.
Similarly, silver prices are ruling down at Rs 35,410 per kg today, compared with Rs 39,000 last Dhanteras. India is the world’s largest gold consumer and imports a sizeable chunk of its total annual
consumption of around 900-1,000 tonnes.