Gold Rush: Demand for the yellow metal 3 times that of silver, ahead of Dhanteras

Ahead of the Dhanteras, Just Dial, India’s local search engine, witnessed a gold rush as demand for the yellow metal stood at 3 times that for silver with tier-II cities witnessing a faster growth rate. Search volumes for gold on Just Dial remained 11 times that for diamond, reports the latest Just Dial Consumer Insight Report. However, silver, on the other hand, was the fastest-growing category with a 30% YOY increase while both gold and diamond remained at 18% each.

As the volume of searches for gold remained high, most of the demand across India’s 1000 towns and cities was dominated by jewellery and bars. Gold jewellery saw a 20% YOY rise in demand while for bars it was 9%. Among jewellery, the maximum preference was for nose rings that saw a YOY demand rise of 71% followed by gold chains (57%), and necklaces (41%).

Demand for gold in tier-II towns was 24%, marginally ahead of tier-I cities at 22%. Among Tier-I cities, Ahmedabad saw the fastest growth rate followed by Chennai and Hyderabad. Cities like Pune, Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata made the rest of the top-8 tier-I cities.

Commenting on consumer behaviour, Prasun Kumar, CMO, Just Dial, said “With the economic recovery gaining pace we are witnessing a demand rise for gold during this festive season. Having reached a record price high in August 2020, gold prices have corrected since then and the festivities have resulted in its increasing demand. Also, add to this India’s burgeoning stock market as buyers tend to invest their returns from the market in gold. Volumes of searches remained high in tier-I cities while the growth rate in most of the tier-II cities remained significantly higher than tier-I.  Among, tier-II cities, Rajkot, Lucknow, and Surat saw a higher growth rate. These trends indicate that gold is gradually bouncing back as a preferred choice of investment.”