Dubai gold rate for 22K shoots past Dh350 a gram for first time

Dubai: The UAE gold rate for a gram of 22K shot past Dh350 for the first time, climbing from Dh347.25 yesterday. Despite this, there was still some 'fairly decent' gold and jewellery buying demand for Eid, with most residents and tourists preferring to go for exchange offers rather than buy something new.

It means that in less than 30 days, the UAE gold rate has gained a near Dh30.

"It had reached a stage where even with discounted making charges - or zero making charge promotions - the cost of buying new gold jewellery has gone way beyond what regular shoppers thought of," said a jewellery retailer.

"The shoppers who were coming for their Eid gold purchases were mostly exchanging what they had."

It's all 'old for new'

Anyone holding some gold jewellery was rushing to exchange for new - or even invest in gold bars. This was too good an opportunity to miss out on, say shoppers.

"My only regret was I had exchanged most of my old jewellery when the Dubai gold rate was Dh310 (for 22K)," said a shopper, who went for another round of exchanges yesterday when it was Dh347. (She has already developed a regret of selling 'early' and not making use of gold hitting Dh350.)

How much more for gold to go?

No one is willing to make bets on what next. For sure, rest of this week should mean more upward price mobility for gold, which increasingly looks the one asset that everyone wants to get into.

This has to do with 'Liberation Day', which is what US President Trump says will happen when he declares a swathe of tariff hikes on countries and industries within the next 48 hours.

"There were bullion traders and wholesalers who were saying I was being alarmist when I said gold would hit $3,000 an ounce in early 2025 rather than later this year," said the owner of a leading jewellery retail brand in Dubai. "If the US tariffs end up slowing down the global economy further, we could be in for $3,300 soon. I hope I will be proved wrong this time..."

Gold crossed $3,000 for the first time on March 14.

What analysts think

Ahead of Trump's next tariff announcements, "Even seasoned macro desks are sitting lighter than usual—flat dollar bets, light equity exposure, and heavy gold allocations have become the base case playbook," said Stephen Innes, Managing Partner at SPI Asset Management.

"'Liberation Day' is shaping up to be less about freedom and more about who gets fragged. Until we get clarity on tariff structure, expect headline-driven whipsaw to remain the dominant market regime..."

Gold shoppers in the UAE sure are sharing the sentiment - and busy looking through their jewellery collections to see if they can sell any to cash in.