Gold sales increase this festive season

HYDERABAD: After a two-year lull, gold sales in the city have taken a northward turn this festive season, courtesy a drop in rates of the yellow metal.The price of gold pegged at Rs 32,000 per 10 grams (24 carat) until recently , dropped to Rs 30,000 over the last one week bringing much cheer to the jewellers community .
Confessing that the drop has come as good news, they hope that the festival sales this year will attract large crowds to their stores.“Dropping of the rates depend on the international market. If it continues, we are sure to have a bumper Diwali this year,“ said N Anantha Padmanabhan, regional chairman, All India Gems and Jewellery Federation.
In fact city retailers are already feeling the impact of the cut in rates with the footfall of customers increasingly significantly over the last few days .“Also because the the price has fallen just before the festive season, the customer flow is bound to be very good,“ said Mohanlal Gupta, a gold trade expert.
Given the response, observers are certain that sales this this year will outdo the figures of 2015 -when people mostly made token purchases. “There is a 20-30% increase in sales this month, compared to July and August , primarily due to gold rate slipping. Also to make the most of the opportunity , many chains have rolled out attractive offers with freebies, reduction in making charges, zero making charges among other festive offers. The overall sentiment in the market has improved considerably ,“ said Sanjay Gulbani, vice-president, Hitech City Jewellers Manufacturers Association.
An uptown jewellery showroom at Punjagutta which sold nearly 6 kgs of gold during the festive season last year is hopeful of crossing 10 kg mark this year. “Footfalls at our store have gone up substantially since the beginning of this month and if the price remains low, we might do much better than last year,“ said the store manager, on con dition of anonymity .
Customers clearly are upbeat. “I am planning to buy atleast 20 grams of gold. Although we were planning to make the purchase for a while, we were waiting festive offers to be rolled out,“ said A Lakshmipriya, a customer who made a booking for Dasara delivery.
It is discounts like these that drove P Padma to a nearby store too. “I had been receiving these messages from some stores for the last few days. When a chanced upon an offer which assured a gold coin with every purchase of a diamond jewellery, I jumped at it,“ she said.
Jewellers say that most sales are expected to be in light weight jewellery section, ranging between 10 and 30 grams.