Gold Sales Slower, More Takers for Silver on Dhanteras

Chennai: On the first day of the two-day Dhanteras, gold sales were 5 -10 per cent lower in volumes, but its cheaper cousin silver saw 15 to 20 per cent higher sales. The industry hopes by tomorrow it will catch up with last year’s sales volumes.

As gold prices remained steady at higher levels of Rs 81,100 per 10 gm in the spot market, jewellers saw customers flocking in but being conscious about the grammage.

According to Saiyam Mehra, vice president, GJC, gold sales were 5-10 per cent lesser than last year, but silver sales went up by 15 to 20 per cent. “We had imported over 6300 tonnes of silver till September, which is 600 per cent higher than last year. Silver coins and bars of different denominations were in good demand,” he said.

In the case of gold, coins made up for 20 per cent of sales and rest was purchased as jewellery, which weighed between 15 to 30 gms. GJC expects around 20 tonnes of gold to have been sold on Tuesday.

Joy Alukka, chairman of Joyalukkas, finds that same-store-growth was 5-8 per cent lower. But, as the company had opened new stores in 2024, the total volumes would be the same or slightly higher than last year. It sold mostly jewellery, while coins were just 5 per cent of the sales.

MMTC Pamp sold 1200 kg of gold coins this month and with the pre-booking being slower than last year, it expects up to 1500 kg to be sold by the end of tomorrow. However, this is less than 2000 kg last year.

It has sold silver coins of 12 kg till Tuesday and hopes to cover last year’s sales of 17 kg by Wednesday as customers are buying more silver than gold. Silver prices were almost steady at Rs 99,500 per kg in the Delhi spot market on Tuesday.