Dubai: Heading into Eid shopping plans, UAE’s shoppers are finding that buying gold jewellery will not come cheap. Gold prices are back at $1,975 an ounce level, with the Dubai Gold Rate starting today (April 14) at Dh225 a gram for 22K.
Gold prices had dropped to $1,924 levels at the start of the month, and the sentiment among shoppers and gold jewellery retailers was that those levels would hold in the second-half of this month and helping with the Eid-related buying. Last few days, however, have severely tested those hopes. (For regular updates on gold prices, check out Gulf News.)
“From what we have seen so far, there is little of shoppers’ buying when gold gets to the $1,950 or over levels,” said a retailer. “Many had been hoping gold would settle at $1,910-$1,920 levels by around April 20-25. The way gold prices are trending, that looks a bit unlikely.”
No repeat of March?
For now, everyone is hoping that there will not be a repeat of what happened in March, when gold soared past $2,000 an ounce in the days after the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Then, gold pushed all the way to $2,050 before slipping, and that continued up to early April’s $1,924 level.
To compensate, UAE jewellers have been offering steep discounts on making charges, and in some cases dropping it to zero on certain collections. They also came up with special offers linked to diamond jewellery, hoping for some take up, especially by tourists.
“So far, March and April have been extremely dry months for the gold markets – hopes for a second-half upturn in April is receding,” said the retailer.
