Diamonds glitter on Dhanteras

KOLKATA:
It’s Advantage Diamonds in Dhanteras 2007. The rush in gold prices
globally is changing the human face of Dhanteras shopping. While gold jewelry is
traditionally the most popular choice during this period, this twelvemonth gross sales of
diamond jewelry have got gone up substantially across the
country. However, gold is yet
to lose its glister completely. The World Gold Council experiences that overall gold
sales will not be impacted despite a driblet in jewelry gross gross sales as clients are
increasingly opting for gold coins and parallel bars as a moneymaking investment
avenue. “With gold prices
having crossed the Rs 10,500-mark, the current tax return of investing on gold is
very high. And given people’s religion in investment in gold, we anticipate to see
good demand for parallel bars and coins though jewelry gross sales might take a hit,”
World Gold Council managing manager (Indian subcontinent) Ajay Mitra told
ET. No wonderment then that even
banks such as as HDFC Bank, SBI and ICICI Bank, are cashing in on this
‘investment’ tendency by merchandising gold parallel bars and coins for the occasion. But overall, diamond jewelry is probably the greatest donee from the rise
in gold prices. “The
sales of diamond jewelry during the Dhanteras hebdomad alone is expected to
increase by 70-80%. At a unsmooth estimate, diamonds worth Rs 250 crore are
expected to be sold nationally during this period,” said Diamond Trading
Company director (east) Premjit
Sengupta. Even lifestyle
retailers like Future Group, Coal Black and Shoppers’ Stop are betting on
Dhanteras to spice up their festival sales. “Since gold jewelry purchase
has not been too strong throughout the year, Dhanteras should supply the
necessary kick. We anticipate Rs 5 crore of gross sales from ‘Navaras’ this
season,” said Big Bazaar chief executive officer Rajan
Malhotra. The grouping sells gold
and diamond jewelry under the ‘Navaras’ brand, primarily through
the Big Bazaar
outlets. Gitanjali Group COO
Dharmesh Bothra said that though overall Dhanteras gross gross sales will travel up because of
the marketplace width, soaring gold terms will impact sales. “However, there
is a pronounced addition in diamond jewelry and branded silverware gross sales this
year,” said Mister Bothra. It
is this wider shopping spreading that retail merchants experience will raise their overall
Dhanteras sales. Shoppers’ Stop chief executive officer Govind Shrikhande said he expects
sales from jewelry to better the chain’s 2nd one-half gross gross sales to 23% from
16% recorded in the first half. “Jewellery arsenic a class is expected to
account for 10% of our sales,” he
said. Anargha Chowdhury, mendelevium of
popular Kolkata-based jewelry concatenation Anjali Jewellers, said that so far
Dhanteras gross sales have got gone up by 18-20%. “Besides gold and diamond,
consumers are also picking up all assortments of costume jewellery,” said Mr
Chowdhury.