Gold glitters past six-year high, silver sale best in 19 years on Dhanteras in Lucknow

Anticipating long term returns amid steady price rise of gold and silver for over a month now, jewellery markets in the city registered record sales on Dhanteras on Tuesday, claimed stakeholders. While sale of gold items was highest in the past six years, silver broke 19-year record, they further claimed. Price of 10 gram of gold was ₹81,900 while 1 kg of silver was sold for ₹1,01,000.
Around 52 kg of gold worth ₹42.12 crore and 1000 kg of silver worth ₹10.10 crore were sold in the capital during the day, said senior vice president, Chowk Sarrafa Association, Adesh Kumar Jain. Among the most expensive purchases was a Kundan-studded necklace worth ₹18 lakh.
“The main reason for the record-breaking sales is the steady increase in the prices of both gold and silver for more than a month now. After a sudden decrease in quantity in 2018 after the implementation of Goods and Service Taxes (GST), the sale of 95 kg of gold on Dhanteras in 2017 went down to 29 kg in 2018,” he said.
“There has been a gradual upward trend in terms of quantity sold for the last couple of years. This year, around 6 kg more gold was sold than last year. While in terms of silver, an upward trend can be studied for the third consecutive year,” Jain added.
The utensil markets also had brisk business throughout the day. President, Lucknow Traders’ Association, Amarnath Mishra said that utensils worth more than ₹200 crore were sold on the occasion.
“Automobile sales were on the expected lines with 4000 two-wheelers and 2500 four-wheelers. However, exact data would be available on Wednesday as some people would continue celebrating Dhanteras due to certain astrological reasons,” said automobile expert Vinkesh Gulati.
Mobile phones market also had a good business with phones worth more than ₹100 crore were sold, said president, Lucknow and UP Mobile Association, Neeraj Jahor.