Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

Showrooms sparkling with gold rush

— Photo: S. R. Raghunathan

TEEMING WITH BUYERS: With gold prices on the decline, jewellery showrooms in T.Nagar are reporting more business. Customers at a showroom on Monday.

CHENNAI: Several jewellery shops near Panagal Park, T.Nagar, have been witnessing a surge in customers for a week now thanks to a dip in gold price.

Though there was a marginal increase in gold rate on Monday, the price again dipped on Tuesday. One gram of gold was priced at Rs.1,044 on Tuesday as against 1,096 per gm on Monday. The price of silver also dipped to Rs.22.50 from the previous day’s rate of Rs.23.40 per gm.

With the decline in the price of the yellow metal, people poured into various jewellery showrooms in T.Nagar to make their purchase. While several of them bought jewellery from their savings, some like S.Bhanumathi, a resident of Adyar, even borrowed money to buy a few sovereigns. Ms.Bhanumathi said, “I took a bank loan to buy gold as it is a good investment option. I decided to buy a few sovereigns now as the cost has dropped after over six months .”

M. Kiran Kumar, chairman and managing director of Lalitha Jewellery, said the sales had gone up by 50 per cent in the past 10 days. But it has only offset the drop in sales for over seven months on the back of the soaring gold prices.

Chairman of Gold Club of Chennai N.Anantha Padmanabhan said there was a dip in gold price in the global gold market as the US dollar has strengthened against the Euro. The fall in crude oil price also contributed to the slump in gold prices. However, a marginal increase in the cost of gold was likely as small variation in cost would occur during such drop in prices. The cost of gold touched an all-time high on July 15 at Rs.1,267 per gm, he said.

Further drop in gold rate cannot be predicted as it depends on the volatile U.S. stock market, he added.

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