Akshay Tritiya the gold buying festival has left the jewellers content', if not exactly ecstatic. Jewellers all over the country were geared
up for festival on Monday, and a special promotional campaign was undertaken in association with the World Gold Council (WGC).
Though final figures are yet to be compiled a day after the festival, jewellers say that sales were fair. They, however, did not cross the previous Akshay Tritiya level. Gold was more than Rs 3,000 per ten gram cheaper at that time. At present, the prices are ruling around Rs 14,800. Traders are considering it to be a good start for the coming marriage season.
President of All India Gems and Jewellery Federation Ashok Minawala said preliminary reports indicated the sales were around 75% of the previous year's sales. At some counters they matched the earlier levels. "This is not discouraging at all in the present economic scenario. It would have been bad if the sales were half the previous year's level," he said.
Back at Nagpur, secretary of Nagpur Sarafa Association, Rajkumar Gupta said the sale were around 30% less than the last year's and certainly much more than a regular day. The high rates are probably deterring consumers for making fresh purchases. Costly gold has also led many to recycle their old ornaments into new ones.
Nitin Khandelwal of Akola-based Khandelwal Jewellers continued to be among doubters. He said good sales could only be expected if the prices fall below Rs 14,000. His firm had a good Akshay Tritiya, selling about 3 kg gold which is actually 25% higher than the previous year's, he said. Pradip Kothari of M/s Karan Kothari who also said value-wise the sales had gone up compared to the last year but in terms of weight, they were less.