Bhubaneswar, Oct 27 (IANS) With the price of gold slipping, people rushed to purchase gold across Orissa Sunday on Dhanteras – an auspicious day in the Hindu calendar.
The price of gold is now hovering around Rs.10,900 per gram from Rs.13,800 a fortnight ago.
Dhanteras – the 13th day of the Hindu month of Kartik – is when Hindus buy jewellery and gold. That the day fell on a Sunday added to the festive mood this year.
“We purchased a gold coin of 10 grams because it will bring good fortune and prices were low,” Sanghamitra Mohanty, a housewife told IANS after coming out of a jewellery shop here.
“We sold gold almost double than what we had sold around this time last year,” Bijay Nanda, owner of Harekrishna Khimji, a leading jewellery shop in Bhubaneswar said. “The sale this year is mainly due to lower price that coincided with the festival.”
Although other part of the state also witnessed the same trend, the sale in state capital would be the highest, he said.
Bhubaneswar has about 200 gold and jewellery shops and many of them had announced discounts up to five per cent, some waived ‘making’ charges. The local news papers, television, FM radio channels were flooded with such advertisements.
The city saw a mad rush of people Sunday to buy gold. People were seen standing in long queues in front of shops. According to a report Monday in the Sambad newspaper here, the total sale of gold in Bhubaneswar would be about two quintals.
“I waited for about two hours in front of a leading shop with my wife but could not enter because of the rush. I was forced to buy some gold from a small shop in the evening,” Manoj Jaisawal, a businessman said.