A customer tries a gold necklace at a jewellery showroom on the occasion of Dhanteras at a market in Mumbai yesterday. Hindus purchase ornaments and utensils on the festival day, celebrated two days before Diwali, the festival of lights.

IANS/New Delhi


Thanks to a dip in the prices of gold this year, brisk buying of the precious metal was seen yesterday as people opened their purse strings for Dhanteras. The newly minted “Made in India” gold coin also saw good sales.
Dhanteras or Dhantrayodashi is celebrated on the 13th day of the Hindu lunar month of Kartik. On this day, buying gold is considered to be auspicious.
“The trend is very good this year. For the first time, the price is on the lower side during Dhanteras period. People are spending to buy jewellery this year,” Balram Garg, managing director of P C Jewellers said in New Delhi.
“I expect sales to go up by 40-50% this year. The wedding season is also here. So, people are also buying jewellery on this day for wedding purposes,” added Garg.
The gold coin launched by the government last week, with the images of Ashok Chakra and Mahatma Gandhi, also saw some good buying. “Till 4pm we expect at least 5,000 coins to have been sold across our 18 outlets in India,” an official of the Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation (MMTC) said.
MMTC, a state-run unit, is the official manufacturer of the coin. About 15,000 coins of 5g, 20,000 coins of 10g and 3,750 gold bullions were made available through MMTC outlets initially, the government said on the day of launch.
The price of the yellow metal was hovering around Rs25,000 per 10g yesterday. Gold price was around Rs27,600 on the Dhanteras day last year.
“Even the general demand at consumer level was good today. The activity level is quite high. It is much better than last year’s. The price is very attractive and the consumers are drawn towards it,” Somasundaram P R, managing director of World Gold Council, India said.
“Very vibrant, earlier it was only symbolic buying but now they are celebrating by buying jewellery which they are utilising more. Buying diamonds is also a catching up trend,” Kishan Surana, managing partner of Sri Krishna Diamonds said in Bengaluru.
But N Anantha Padmanabhan, managing director of NAC Jewellers in Chennai said that rains have dampened the sales.
“We expect the sales to be better this year as the gold price is attractive. Last 10 days’ sales were good. Today the sale of gold coins will be better,” Madras Jewellers and Diamond Merchants Association president Jayantilal Challani said.
“However, the sale of gold coins launched by the central government may not be much as of now, since there is lack of awareness about the coins and the outlet where they’re sold from,” he added.