With marriage season round the corner for state’s Christians, the steep hike in gold price could not have come at a more inopportune time for all those gearing up for gold purchases. The yellow metal has been on an upward journey for the past few months.
It may attain new heights, as per the indications. When the price breached the psychological mark of Rs.1,000 per gram last week, jewellery sales slumped by as much as 40 percent.
Kerala is one of the States where gold is always in high demand. The surge in gold prices is impacting the sales of Kerala jewellers even. Jewellery marts have been doing slump business in Kochi and the other cities despite the fact that the wedding season is around for the state’s Christians.
While the Bhima Jewellers, one of the leading jewellery showroom in kerala, faced about 40% dip in its sales; Malabar Gold, another famous jewellers faced a slump in sales of 20- 25 % dip since New Year.
After Christmas, it’s a season of marriages among Christians. Therefore, sales pick up during this time wherever there is a sizeable Christian presence. Christians constitute around 20 percent of Kerala’s population.
In northern Kerala, the sale is maximum during April-May. Onam and Christmas come second with regard to sales. However though it is not possible to postpone the purchase of gold for marriages people have to buy it, but they are forced to buy less quantity due to its high cost.
When the prices go up, it is only those who make occasional purchases of gold who are likely to reschedule their shopping plan. There has also been a rush to sell gold to take advantage of the price rise.
Jewellers here provide customers a facility to protect themselves against the vagaries of the market. A customer can pay for a future purchase at today’s rate to his advantage. If, however, the price falls, the customer is allowed to make a purchase at the lower rate.
After the gold price crossed Rs.1,000 per gram, there is a noticeable increase in those seeking to make use of this advance-booking facility. People are disposing of gold to take advantage of the price rise.