Gold jewellery demand up 50 per cent

Retail jewellers said that demand for gold jewellery started inching up as soon as the prices of the yellow metal slipped below Rs 26,000 per 10 gram and consumers who had held back their purchases for the last one or two years are now finding it attractive to enter the market.

“Since the last week of June, we have witnessed a sudden jump in the demand for gold jewellery. There has been a 50 per cent increase in gold jewellery demand during the past one month as compared to the same period last year. Gold prices have corrected around 20-25 per cent over the past one year. Consumers who had postponed their purchases expecting the gold prices to drop are now loosening their purse strings,” said Dinesh Jain, managing director, PM Shah Jewellers, a Mumbai-based gold retail jeweller.

Last week, the prices of the yellow metal fell below Rs 25,000 per 10 gram in the domestic market. Mr Jain expects the prices of gold to remain broadly in the range of Rs 24,000 – Rs 25,000 per 10 gram during the next three to four months.

Bachhraj Bamalwa, MD, Kolkata-based Nemichand Bamalwa & Sons pointed out that the B2B gold jewellery exhibition held in Mumbai has seen a robust demand from retail gold jewellers, which suggests that they are anticipating higher demand from final consumers in coming months. “There has been a 40-50 per cent jump in gold jewellery demand across the country, especially in the last 15 days. What we are seeing is that consumers are preponing their Diwali and wedding-related purchases due to lower gold prices,” he said.