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High-going gold brings down poor consumers’ dreams
KATHMANDU, NOV 19 - When Sangita Gurung from Samakhosi engaged her sister’s marriage for this month some forty-five days back, she took trouble to buy necessary jewelry promptly. It had came as an instinctive action, the sole target of which was to relive her from the burden of last-hour shopping.
Now she says she was more than relived since her action unknowingly saved her some eight thousand rupee on jewelry alone. “Had I gone for shopping in the current rift of gold price rally, I would have opted to buy a tola (11.67 gram) less gold,” she said.
However, Sanjaya Sharma who is on a shopping spree in the capital for his niece’s marriage scheduled for later this month was not quite lucky as Gurung. “Had it not been very necessary I would never have dared to go on a jewelry shopping in this price trend,” he said.
Similar was response of other consumers interviewed at various gold shops in the capital today. The gold price rise has come at a wrong time, state consumers, as marriage season has just kicked off and will last for a month. Owing to tradition and requirement of the season, new sales of gold increase sharp, generally, during marriage seasons.
There are eight dates considered auspicious for marriage this month, according to astrologers. The season has come after a gap of about two months and dealers were hopeful of making better business during the period. “But, this appears very unlikely to happen,” lamented Tej Ratna Shakya, President of Nepal Gold-Silver Dealers Association.
While the majority of middle class consumers are still to come out of lowered income level due to economic slackness, the latest price hike has further drove them away from bullion market, he asserted.
This explains why the sales of gold, despite the peak season, still hovers around 15 kg per day. “The average daily sales from my outlet is around three tolas of gold. This sales figure is no better than sales recorded on any normal day,” states Niranjan Shakya, a Pyukha-based gold dealer. He adds that the price rise has significantly negated the demand of the season.
The price of gold in the domestic market today adhered to yesterday’s price of an all time high, that is, Rs 9540 per 10-grams. This is a sharp climb by Rs 380 per ten gram within a fortnight. “And one good thing that has continued to happen is that the rate of recycle is very low despite the substantial capital gain offered by the latest price trend,” said Shakya.
He added that the recycle business has remained at about 15 percent, which is at a normal level. “This might be due to the season’s effect,” said Gurung. “People prefer to retain ornaments in marriage season,” she added.
Perhaps people are speculating of further price rise, said Niranjan Ratna Shakya. However, the latest trend in the international market suggests that the price of yellow metal is likely to go down.
In London, gold was traded at US$ 392 per troy ounce on Tuesday, which was down by over US$ 6 as compared to the last day’s price. The price retracted due to better trading of dollar against major rival agencies today.
Also Japanese government, responding to Al-Queda threat to attack Japan in case it send troops to Iraq, announced not to change its policy to stock market, which helped the stock market perform normally. “This means, the price might recede back in next few days to come,” said Shakya. “But none can predict of how the market would respond,” he added.Posted on: 2003-11-18 10:20
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