Lockdown lull: Distress sale of gold rises as business & jobs take hit, savings dry up

BATHINDA/JIND: With jobs gone and businesses taking a hit from the long lockdown to contain Covid 19, an increasing number of people are selling gold kept at home to overcome cash crunch.
In Haryana’s Jind town, which is popular for gold shopping among people in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan, jewellers are saying this is the first time they are seeing such a rise in people wanting to sell gold. In Punjab’s Barnala town, though the rise in number of people falling back on distress sale of gold, which costs a little over Rs 45,000 per 10 grams, has been slow, it has started to become visible now, say jewellers.
A jeweller in nearby Bathinda, Surinder Kumar, said every fourh customer visiting his shop was looking to sell the yellow metal.
As per jewellers, nearly 15-20% persons having gold without much use at home are coming forward to sell off the metal. Under usual circumstances, people fall back on selling gold in case of an emergency or financial crisis, they said.
Rishav Jain, co-owner of a Barnala-based jeweller, said 3-4 persons were coming to their shops daily to dispose of gold. “Earlier, only needy persons or those in an emergency used to sell gold, but now people are just coming to get rid of gold so that they could have some cash in hand. The average of those coming to sell is nearly 20-25% of total footfall. We hope this stops when things are normal,” he said.
Jind is home to over 300 jewellery shops. Rajender Soni, president of a gold jewellers’ body in the town, said many people selling gold owned business and needed the cash to rejuvenate their businesses, which have suffered losses due to two-month-long lockdown.
A jewller in Jind, Deepak Verma, added many people had also cancelled orders placed before lockdown.
Om Prakash, another jeweller in the Haryana town, said gold price was around Rs 40,000 per 10 gram when the lockdown was imposed, but now its rate had increased. “There is no sale or business now. People are only coming to sell gold,” he said.
“Our business also depends on marriages, but even many of those have been cancelled or caled down,” added another jeweller.