Gujarat's gold rush continues even on Dhanteras; 300 kg sold

It’s raining moolah for the gold jewellers these days for whom the glitter in the market that began with Pushya Nakshatra continued to dazzle brilliantly even on Dhanteras. The city on Sunday saw Amdavadis queue up jewellery stores to buy gold, though the prices have increased immediately after Pushya Nakshatra, celebrated eight days back. Many of the jewellery shops witnessed good sale of not only gold, but silver and diamonds as well. Looking at the demand for the yellow metal in the city, jewellers peg the total sale of the metal around 300 kg in a single day.

However, this time, city jewellers opine that many buyers were opting for light weight options instead of heavy jewellery. “Except those who were shopping for marriage, other customers preferred light weight gold jewellery. Heavy gold bangles were not sold,” said Shanti Patel, president of Gem & Jewellery Trade Council of India. He further said that though Pushya Nakshatra witnessed good sale of gold, Sunday too wasn’t bad a market. “As compared to daily business, today we witnessed 40% more business,” added Patel, who owns a jewellery shop on CG road.

Many of the shop owners, who do not think the purse strings haven’t opened much wider than last year, they are happy with the fact that people are still purchasing gold. Talking about the business at his shop, president of Choksi Mahajan Association of Ahmedabad, Harshvardhan Dhaya Choksi said, “We witnessed very good business this year. I believe the city has bought around 300-400 kg of gold on Sunday, looking at the rush of people at the gold shops. In a single day, we witnessed 20% more business than usual days.”

Explaining the reason for good sale, jewellers stated that the order by Gujarat high court to lift seizure of cash over Rs2.5 lakh helped in boosting up sales. “Also, it being a Sunday, people had time and were in a shopping mood which helped up the sales. Diwali is also putting the festive mood back in buyers,” added Chokshi.

Not only the metal, precious stones also sparkled on Dhanteras. Talking about his share of sale, owner of AB Jewels, Manoj Soni said that diamond nose-pins were the hottest item on menu. “On Sunday, though diamonds were sold in lesser quantity, buyers were preferring diamond nose-pins. We sold around 35 nose-pins today,” Soni said.

Surtis too thronged jewellery shops on Dhanteras, splurging on gold coins and jewellery, besides silver and diamonds too. According to jewelers, business worth Rs200 crore was recorded in Surat on the occasion.

“Majority of our customers brought necklaces and that too of traditional design. Gold and silver coins too were sold in good numbers. Sale of diamond jewellery was also good this time,” commented Tushar Choksi, a Surat-based jeweler.