Bengali New Year: Sentiment for buying gold hurt as price zooms

Bengali New Year is round the corner. But this year, the rally in gold price in the the past few days has sullied the sentiment of Bengalis, who look forward to buying gold to welcome the New Year, which is on April 15.

Over the past eight days the price pf the yellow metal has zoomed, rising almost Rs 2,600 per 10 grams.

The price of 24 carat gold on March 31 in Kolkata was Rs 44,850/ 10 gms.

But on April 9, it stood at Rs 47,600/10 gms, recording a rise of Rs 2,750/10 gms.

The 22 carat hallmark gold also witnessed a sharp rise before Bengali New Year or Poila Baishak. The price rose from Rs 42,500/10 gms on March 31 to Rs 45,000/10 gms, which translates to an addition of Rs 2,500 per 10 gms.

“After the pandemic gold prices dipped to Rs 42,000-43,000 range. Before Poila Baishak I was planning to buy some ornaments for my granddaughter. But this price hike is worrying,” said Swapna Roy, a resident of Beliaghata in eastern Kolkata.

“In March this year we witnessed 18-20% hike in sale of gold ornaments over last year. But this price hike will surely affect sales during this occasion. But since the price is still below the record levels witnessed in Ajugust last year, we might expect some sales. The demand of gold is rising and we hope the first quarter of FY22 will witness a rise in sale of ornaments,” said Subhra Chandra, owner of PC Chandra Jewellers.

Subir Sen, proprietor of prominent jewellery chain BC Sen, concurs with Chandra. “Sales were good in February and March. This price hike might be a spoiler but we are hoping for the best,” he said.

Only last week experts told Money9 that the price of gold won’t dip further though the import of the metal surged to record levels in March. The import in January-March quarter was at a record 321 tonnes, up by 159% from 124 tonnes in the same period a year ago.

The price of the yellow metal rose to record highs of Rs 58.360/10 grams in August 2020.