Gold price tumbles to yet another low
KATHMANDU, JUNE 29:
Gold price today plunged to Rs 48,100 a tola (11.664 grams), a fall of Rs 1,400 per tola from yesterday’s price. Gold had never been so cheap since 11 August 2011 when its price fell to Rs 47,500 per tola.
In the international market, the price of yellow metal has dipped below $ 1,200 per troy ounce (31.1034768 grams), triggering a fall in gold price here. However, further fall was prevented by the rising US dollar exchange rate against Nepali currency.
The global economic concerns following 2008 global financial crisis and consequent European sovereign debt troubles had assisted in gold’s ascent.
But gold is no longer money in the bank. In domestic market gold price has depreciated by 16 per cent as compared to last year. The yellow metal price has plunged by almost 20 per cent from the highest ever recorded price of Rs 61,500 per tola in November 2012.
The current signs that global economic situation has improved and Eurozone is handling its debt problems have diverted investment from gold to stocks and bonds.
Moreover, last week’s address by United States’ Federal Reserve that it will wind up its bond buying programme to keep minimum interest rate by mid-2014 has further dimmed the lustre of gold.
Consumers who are used to ever-increasing price of gold are trying to cash in on the decline. “Consumers want to take advantage of the declining price as gold rarely becomes cheap,” Manik Ratna Shakya, general secretary of Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association (FNEgosida), told THT.
Recently Department of Commerce and Supply Management and Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology inspected jewellery shops in Kathmandu and found three well-known shops’ weighing machines and quality of gold and silver to be substandard. In protest, FNEgosida and Federation of Nepal Gold, Silver, Gems and Jewellery Association called an 11-day closure of the shops that ended on June 23.
“There has been a surge in demand for jewellery in the past week due to the declining price,” added Shakya.
Source: THT
