KARACHI: Gold prices on Wednesday set another high level of Rs 26,614 per 10 grams and Rs 31,050 per tola on the local market while in the international market it reached $1,016 per ounce.
With this upsurge in prices, the price of artificial jewelry has witnesses an increase of 50-60 percent, traders said.
Gold was available at Rs 30,500 per tola and Rs 26,185 per 10 grams on Tuesday, after witnessing a gain of Rs 550 and Rs 429, respectively.
It is the fourth time that gold hit highest during last 30 days. The price of gold in the international market can further climb to more than $1020 soon, Muhammad Haneef Chand, a dealer of gold at Sarafa Market said.
Haneef said that heavy buying of gold in international market from China was the main reason for this hike in prices. He said that after India, China has bought a large quantity of gold from the international market and if this heavy buying continues gold price can increase in a couple of weeks.
However, the highest price in international market remained at $1024 on March 17, 2008 at that time the gold was available at Rs 24,100 per tola and at Rs 20,657 per 10 grams in the local market. “The commodity price is increasing by average 33 percent annually, as it was at Rs 22,500 per tola in last Ramazan, and now stands at Rs 31,000 in this Ramazan,” he said.
With the growing inflation in the country and the burdens of sugar and wheat, gold hike is another burden for those who were targeting to buy it for wedding purposes.
Ubaid, an artificial jewelry seller said that the imitation jewelry has become more attractive for the consumers, as the unprecedented hike in the prices of gold have jolted the consumers purchasing power.
He said that artificial jewelry including bangles, necklace, bracelets, gem and many other imitation are available at almost Karachi’s every big market and due to its cheap availability people prefer to buy it.
He was of the view that there is also a problem of security in the city. Many women have started preferring in wearing artificial jewellery these days instead of original gold jewellery because of security concerns outside the marriage halls and lawns.
It was not just gold that was hit with high price but also other metals as silver, platinum and copper whose rates have seen a hike in the recent days. Although the oil prices in the international market seem to be at flat, this jeopardy in the glittery metals seem to be because of the heavy gold buying by major gold dealer countries like India.
“This is not a small rise and I am afraid I will have to buy it less than the planned budget for my daughter-in-laws,” a customer said. However, the yellow metal still remains the safe haven for investment as investors still rush to buy it despite the mounting rates.
