Festive buyers pre-book gold as prices correct from recent highs

Pune: Consumers are choosing to lock-in festive purchases with gold prices correcting from recent highs, despite expectations that prices could soften further.Price of gold is down almost 25% to Rs1,41,911/10g (without GST) from Jan highs and silver is down to Rs2,21,600/kg (without GST).

“It is very tough to time the markets and buy at the lowest price.

We usually make purchases around festivals like Rakshabandhan and Ganapati. We have decided to pre-book the gold and silver coins, this week,” said Kunal Dinesh Shengade, a resident of Kothrud.“Advance locking at corrected levels — particularly via SIPs, digital gold, and advance booking schemes, especially among investment-oriented and wedding-planning buyers — is likely to accelerate with Adhik Maas concluding and the core festive calendar (Ganesh Chaturthi through Diwali) approaching,” said Dr Renisha Chainani, head of research at Augmont.Bar and coin demand is likely to feature more prominently as price momentum, geopolitical risk and relatively less attractive investment alternatives continue to attract savers. “Investment formats — ETFs, EGRs and digital gold — will disproportionately capture festive-period flows, with jewellery demand recovering primarily in wedding-related and gifting categories, aided by retailers’ promotions to exchange old gold,” added Chainani.

Jigar Vyas, CFO, CaratLane said, “We are seeing an uptick in overall festive planning and buying, further incentivised by our current promotions. We’ve introduced a 0% making charge offer, allowing customers to pay essentially for the intrinsic value of the diamonds and gold.”Prices of gold and silver have been volatile over the last few months. Booking in advance also avoids the risk of a sudden rebound closer to the festive season when demand typically picks up, said Rahul Gupta, a resident of Baner.A jeweller at Mumbai’s Zaveri Bazaar said, “Customers are making partial bookings or advance payments to take advantage of the price decline. We are also encouraging them to make purchases by exchanging old gold.”“Gold prices will start rising towards the festival season. In anticipation, customers are pre-booking and buying jewellery now to get more value later, “ said Suresh Krishnan, VP sales, PNG Jewellers.The correction in gold prices is encouraging customers who had postponed purchases during the period of record highs to re-enter the market. “While some are taking advantage of the lower price levels to plan festive and wedding-related purchases in advance, many are choosing to buy in smaller denominations over a period instead of making a large one-time purchase,” said Samit Guha, MD and CEO, MMTC-PAMP.