Jewellery shops open, gold cheaper
KATHMANDU, JUNE 24:
Consumers flocking to jewellery shops following the 11-day strike by bullion traders were greeted with lowered gold price in comparison to the previous closing.
The gold price as fixed by the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association (FNegosida) today is Rs 2500 lower than the price fixed on June 11 — day before bullion traders initiated the shutdown of jewellery shops nationwide.
The price fixed for today stood at Rs 50,500, while on June 11 the price of a tola of gold was fixed at Rs 53,000. Likewise, silver price was fixed at Rs 750 today, which stood at Rs 825 per tola on June 11.
“Jewellers were flooded with orders today due to the closure of the market for more than 12 days,” pointed out president of FNegosida Mani Ratna Shakya. “Moreover, the wedding season is not yet over so demand is really high and the lowered price has also fuelled demand.”
Jewellery shops nationwide had remained shut from June 12 after FNegosida and Federation of Nepal Gold, Silver, Gems and Jewellery Association (FNGSGJA) jointly announced a protest programme to pressurise government authorities to prepare market monitoring regulation.
Bullion traders withdrew the protest programme on Saturday — June 22 —after the Department of Commerce and Supply Management (DoCSM) agreed to a three-point deal.
To appease bullion traders, the department also decided to withdraw cases against three jewellery outlets that were found to be cheating customers regarding quality of metal used and weight.
DoCSM has agreed to form a seven-member taskforce that will prepare the market monitoring standard. The taskforce will be headed by an official at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies and will include representatives from Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology, DoCSM, Finance Ministry, Law Ministry, FNegosida and FNGSGJA.
In the last 12 days, since the official protests began, bullion traders had stopped fixing the daily gold and silver prices. They had also stopped buying gold from the banks — official importers of the precious yellow metal in Nepal. More than 240 kilos of gold remained in the vaults of commercial banks in the last 12 days with no jeweller buying the yellow metal due to the protest.
Meanwhile, gold price has tanked in the last one week in the international commodities market following the US Federal Reserve’s announcement that it will wind up its ongoing third round of Quantitative Easing by mid-2014. The end of loosened money supply and improved American economy removes the need for investors to hold on to safe-haven commodities such as gold and silver.
In the last week, gold price has slipped below $1300 per ounce following the Fed’s announcement. The spot gold price on Friday stood at $1288 in the global commodities market.
Though gold price has tanked globally, the strong dollar against the Nepali currency has not allowed the price in the domestic market to take a deeper dip since the metal is bought in terms of dollars. The price of gold had reached Rs 49,500 on April 16 — a 20-month low when global price slumped to $1360 per ounce.
Nepal has imported gold worth Rs 21.2 billion by the 10th month of the current fiscal year, which is 1.2 per cent less than the amount used to import gold a year back.
Source: THT
