Agence France Presse
PATNA, India, January 30, 2004: India’s temperamental bullion market has forced caution upon middle-class buyers ahead of the wedding season, which gets into full swing after Sunday when the astrology becomes auspicious for weddings after a long period. Last November, hundreds of thousands of nuptials held in a single week to fit into the decade’s most auspicious celestial event pumped up gold prices by US$0.76 to a record of $129.78 dollars for 10 grams. Since then gold prices have surged even higher. With the onset of a new wedding cycle, however, gold prices are again fluctuating wildly. The unpredictability has turned customers into market speculators, gold traders said in Patna, a center of the ancient gold ornament industry. “For the last week most gold jewellers of Patna have not got a penny in their cash-boxes as buyers are preferring to hold back,” said K.P. Gupta, chief of Patna’s gold ornament association. Gupta’s worries were echoed in other cities of India, the world’s largest consumer of gold — which is pegged at around 400 tons a year. Anand Ambashta, a truck firm owner who will marry off his third daughter next week, said he had burnt his fingers while picking up a trousseau which included gold jewellery — a must in India’s elaborate marriages. “I shopped in Delhi and when I came back I realized gold prices have tumbled by 15 or 20 rupees the next day. “I calculated and I realized that I made a massive loss,” he said. “Indian wedding seasons change the profile of the gold jewelry market but ultimately it is the international situation that determines local levels,” said Shivaji Sarkar, a professor with the Indian Institute of Mass Communications.