Women shopping on the occasion of Dhanteras.
– Photo : Amar Ujala
The two-day long festival of Dhanteras saw a huge sale of gold, jewelery and coins due to strong demand. The jewelery industry expects a 35 per cent growth in business this time as compared to last year. However, the jewelery market remained sluggish for a few hours on Sunday due to the cricket match between India and Pakistan. Jewelery traders said that after the match was over, there was a rush of buyers in the markets across the country.
This time the festival of Dhanteras was on both Saturday and Sunday. Dhanteras, the day before Diwali, is considered the most auspicious day for buying gold, silver, utensils and other valuables. Despite the high prices of gold, people shop heavily on Dhanteras. On Sunday, the price of gold in Delhi stood at Rs 50,139 per ten grams (tax not included). Last year on Dhanteras, the price of ten grams of gold was Rs 47,644.
Normally 20-30 tonnes of gold is sold on the occasion of Dhanteras. Apart from gold, silver and jewellery, people also buy vehicles and other items on this auspicious day. Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Director (Marketing and Sales), Maruti Suzuki India Limited said that this year an estimated 21,000 vehicles were supplied in the two days of Dhanteras festival. This is 10 per cent higher than the previous year, but lower than in 2018 and 2019. There are still constraints in the availability of high-demand models, which have long waiting periods, he added.
Ashish Pethe, President, All India Gem and Jewelery Household Council, said the response on Sunday has been very good as compared to Saturday as overall there has been a jump in the markets across the country. Sales are estimated to be 10-15 per cent higher than in 2021. There was a slight sluggishness in the jewelery markets on the second day of Dhanteras on Sunday for the India-Pakistan cricket match, but after the match was over, the number of customers picked up and shopping activities picked up in the shops, he said.
On the other hand, World Gold Council India’s Regional Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Somasundaram PR said that sales on Dhanteras have been reported to be 15-25 per cent higher this year as compared to last year as the festive occasion saw strong consumer sentiment in favor of gold. woke up again. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAT) said the estimated business during the two-day Dhanteras this year is around Rs 45,000 crore, of which the jewelery business is around Rs 25,000 crore.
In a statement, CAIT said that the turnover of automobiles, computers and computer related items, furniture, essential items for home and office decoration, sweets and snacks, kitchen items, all kinds of utensils, electronics and other items is about 20,000 crores. Rs. CAIT has estimated that after two years of slowdown in the market due to Kovid-19, the business figure will cross Rs 1.5 lakh crore nationwide by the Diwali festival this year.