By Sutanuka Ghosal
The Times of India, Mumbai
Monday, July 25, 2016
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/c...-may-have-ra...
KOLKATA, India -- The rising price of gold since the beginning of 2016 has
not enthused Indians to liquidate their household gold to create liquidity.
Indians have reduced gold offerings to temples as well.
Gold has appreciated 25 percent from the beginning of this year on the
back of geopolitical tensions, Britain's decision to leave the European
Union, and the growing expectations that interest rates, which are arguably
the primary counterweight to gold, are set to stay lower for longer and could
even fall further. ...
"Despite prices surging ahead and a liquidity crisis being reported, we
have not seen Indians selling household gold. Last year, when it touched Rs
29,000, we had seen people offloading old gold. But this year we are not
seeing that trend though price is around Rs 31,500-31,800," said
Jitendra Jain of Mumbai-based scrap dealing firm Jugrag Kantilal.
The price rise has also affected India's devotion quotient. Gold offerings
to many temples have fallen in the recent months, said people associated with
temple trusts. "Every day we are seeing a drop in gold offerings,"
Sanjiv Patil, the chief executive of Mumbai's Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati
Temple Trust, told The Times.
"Even silver offerings have declined after silver prices moved up. In
the last one month the drop has been around 10-15 percent for both gold and
silver."
Currently, the temple holds 171 kilograms of gold and 3,000 kilograms of
silver. It has already deposited 54 kilograms of gold under the government's
Gold Monetisation Scheme for five-to-seven-year tenure. "There will be
two auctions of temple gold -- one on August 20 and another after Diwali.
Whatever gold will be left will be deposited in GMS," Patil said.
At the Tirupati Balaji Temple gold offerings are steady. The spokesperson
of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam said: "We have not seen a decline
in gold offering. It is steady as of now."
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