Buyers give gold a miss this Dhanteras for this

The tradition of buying gold and silver during Diwali, especially Dhanteras, is losing its essence. 

Nearly 79% jewellers are focusing on platinum-based diamond jewellery as against the gold and silver ornaments to push the changing preferences of consumers, an Assocham report said.

The survey further found that demand for diamond is expected to rise by 30-35% this season while platinum jewellery too may see a 25% growth in sales. 

Assocham said, “High gold prices and innovations on the part of jewellery firms, especially the large houses, is driving the change in the fashion trend. Even within gold jewellery, the trend is seen on lower cost wearables, though more needs to be done to tempt consumers.  Small items like earring, rings and light bangles see heavy demand.”

The survery was conducted with a sample size of 350 jewellers in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Dehradun.

Assocham also surveyed about 500 working and non-working women in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai to measure their shopping habits during Dhanteras.

Moreover, traders opined that high level of policy regulation and tax issues like mandatory quoting of the Permanent Account Number of Income Tax could also be one factor of the yellow metal losing sheen this Dhanteras. 

 "With high import duty and increased base price, the investment oriented consumers are seen less in the bullion market, while the business model is moving towards the wearable jewellery, easy on the pocket, even though it may not have too much of weight," said Assocham