Gold Prices: Dhanteras demand boosts auto, gold sales, brings cheer for companies

NEW DELHI: The festive period of Dhanteras shines once again, with strong footfalls across key consumer segments, such as gold and silver, cars and SUVs, electronics, durables and iPhones, though the purchasing was more towards premium products.
The recent spike in gold prices this time around did have an impact on consumer sentiments, but the walk-ins and buying trends didn’t disappoint on Dhanteras, considered auspicious for bullion buying, companies and retailers told TOI.”Thankfully, gold prices have somewhat stabilised over the past few days, and we are pushing for double-digit growth,” Ajoy Chawla, CEO of jewellery division at Titan said. “Initially there was some nervousness, but it looks positive as we head towards the close of the day.”

Arun Narayan, VP at Tanishq (Titan company), said that schemes, which enable the consumers to choose best of the prices between a day when they book a jewellery to the day of delivery (such as Dhanteras), have also drawn in a lot of consumers. A strong range of new product collections has also helped.

Rahul Gupta, director PP Jewellers and Diamonds, said despite price of bullion being 20% higher than last year, there has been a 10% growth in its wholesales to retailers. “Since prices are higher, the value growth in gold and silver purchasing has been around 30%. People seem to have overcome the nervousness around higher prices, and are buying since they expect prices to go up over the coming weeks.”
Car and SUV deliveries were equally strong, as buying metal is considered auspicious. “Car and SUV sales for the industry are expected to grow by around 22%, and we expect total deliveries of around 55,000-57,000 units against 32,000 units last Dhanteras,” Shashank Srivastava, director (marketing & sales) at Maruti Suzuki said.

Tarun Garg, COO of Hyundai India, said the company expects to deliver around 10,300 units on Dhanteras, surpassing last year’s figure by more than double. Brands such as Reliance Digital saw healthy footfalls. The companysaw strong demand across products such as TVs, refrigerators, and audio, with big focus on premium products.
Ashish Agrawal, senior VP at LG India, said demand for large-screen TVs remains at an all-time high. “It’s the 55-inch, 65-inch and even the 75-inch where the demand has been strong. The same has been the case when it comes refrigerators and washing machines, where average sales prices have been higher to what we saw earlier.”