The government is set to launch two new gold coins on Monday, May 9, on the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya. One of the gold coins will have the image of Mahatma Gandhi embossed on it, while the other will have the Ashok Chakra.
Akshaya Tritiya is considered to be a gold buying festival as it's considered auspicious to pick up the yellow metal on the day.
As can be seen in the picture, the gold coin bearing Mahatma Gandhi's seal will be a 5 gram coin, while the one with the Ashok Chakra will be a 10 gram coin.
Every year, jewellers wait for the festival as demand goes up significantly. This year too, jewellers are looking forward to Akshaya Tritiya, especially after the long jewellers' strike against excise duty hike made them keep their shutters down for over 45 days.
Despite this, there are only a few who expect demand to go significantly higher. This is because the drought in several places in the country will keep rural demand away. Even gold prices are pretty high, over Rs 30,000 per 10 grams, which might keep customers at bay.
However, the sale of gold coins may go up as customers usually come in and buy only a gold coin as a token on the festival.
On Monday, BSE and the National Stock Exchange will allow trading in gold exchange traded funds till 7 pm.
