Jewellers line up gold offers this Akshaya Tritiya

With gold emerging as one of the top investment avenues, prominent jewellers are offering discounts on the yellow metal to tap the buying rush on Akshaya Tritiya on May 6. This day is considered to be auspicious according to Hindu calendar for gems and jewellery buying.

In a step towards this, Reliance Jewels announced ‘Double Gold Rate Protection’, wherein its customers can pre-book jewellery and fix their gold rate as protection against price increase. If the gold rate on Akshaya Tritiya is lower than the booking rate the difference is returned to customers.

Similarly, in Tanishq if a customer pre-books before May 6 by paying 75% of the cost, the gold price on that particular day is fixed upon. Apart from this, they are also offering upto 15% off on diamond jewellery and upto 25% off on the making charges of plain gold jewellery.

Another major player, Popley & Sons is giving away half gram gold free on the purchase of every 10 grams of gold. Similarly, in case of gold jewellery, if a customer pays    `10,000 as labour charges, he can shop for any diamond jewellery worth `10,000 and if he buys a diamond piece worth a lakh, he can buy a watch worth Rs40,000 free of cost (i.e. 40% of a lakh is contributed by the jeweller for free).

“Akshaya Tritiya fetches nearly 10% of Gitanjali’s annual gold sales, in the denomination of 70% gold and 30% diamond jewellery. Hence, it is important to attract more customers on the occasion. We are also expecting a 40% growth in jewellery sales in terms of value,” says Mehul Choksi, CMD, Gitanjali Gems Pvt Ltd. The company is also offering discounts on its various brands, one of which is Gili.

Last year, Akshaya Tritiya was on May 16 and the gold price on May 17 was `18,265 per ten grams. This year, as on May 4, the cost is `22,265 per ten grams.

Gold has outperformed many asset classes by giving returns close to 21.81% since the last year. Whereas, if one calculates the returns gold has managed to deliver since Akshaya Tritiya 2009, it will be close to 51%.

Even banks have floated special offers and discounts on gold coins and bars to promote savings and investments in the metal. Kotak Mahindra bank offers 2.5 to 4% discount on purchase of gold coins and bars.

“Gold continues to be a preferred asset class. The prognosis on gold price is that it will still remain in positive territory. We are largely doing below-the-line activities to promote gold this Akshaya Tritiya through emails, banners and SMS communication to our customers. We sold 80 kgs last year and are hoping to log in may be 130 to 150% more business this year,” says Puneet Kapoor, executive vice-president, Kotak Mahindra Bank. Meanwhile, HDFC Bank is offering interest-free three-month EMIs on purchase through its credit cards.