Asia's largest gold mkt loses glitter

The market is experiencing dull moments now because many people have seen dip in their earnings and many more lost their jobs due to the Covid pandemic last year -Yogesh Singhal, Bullion and Jewellers Association, Kucha Mahajani market

New Delhi: Asia's largest wholesale jewellery market, Kucha Mahajani at Chandini Chowk has lesser crowd than usual lately, even as the wedding season has begun across North India. Despite the recent drop in prices in silver and gold, customers aren't taking the narrow, glimmering lanes of Old Delhi to purchase precious metals. The popular yet congested lanes of Kucha Mahajani market used to witness huge surge of crowd during the festive seasons for purchase of silver, gold, diamond, kundan and other precious stones. But that's not the case now as Covid takes sheen off gold sales. Avnish Aggarwal, a fourth generation jewellery shop owner, said that irrespective of the fluctuations in the prices of gold and silver, customers are skeptic of investing heavily in ornaments due to job losses in the last year due to pandemic.

The Bullion and Jewellers Association President, Yogesh Singhal, spoke to Bizz Buzz, explaining the factors that have dampened the spirits of both jewellers and customers.

"There are some inauspicious days in February which has dissuaded customers from purchasing gold and diamond. For silver, the demand usually at its peak during Diwali and Dhanteras. The market is experiencing dull moments now because many people have seen dip in earnings and many more lost their jobs due to Covid pandemic last year. So, I'm hopeful that the purchasing power will be back once the new financial calendar kicks in April," Singhal said.

At present, the prices of gold and silver in the market are Rs 47,000/10gms and Rs 698/10gms respectively. Prabhjot Singh, owner of Bishan Singh Jewellers, a popular store setup over four decades ago, is hopeful that the market will resume its usual business in the coming weeks.

"Post the Budget 2021, the market has seen slight improvement. The relaxation on import duty by 2 per cent has helped a bit. We usually see 6-7 customers a day and now that the wedding season is on, we are seeing more customers during weekdays as well," Singh said.

The government, during Union Budget 2021-22, announced reduction in basic customs duty on precious metals like gold and silver from 12.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent.

Similar sentiments, however, are not shared among most shop owners in the market. On an average, jewellers usually had 50-60 customers visiting each day, and now are barely touching the double digits. The falling prices of gold and silver in the past week hasn't brought much of optimistic wave.