Indians’ love affair with platinum was brief

Frik Els | March 3, 2012 | 11:55 pm Base Metals Precious Metals Asia Europe Gold Platinum Silver

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The Business Standard reports now that platinum trades more in line with the gold price, Indian jewellery buyers are moving back into gold.

Gold futures ended the week in New York close to $70/oz or over 3.5% down at $1,710 an ounce.

The losses came after a dramatic trading day on Wednesday when the yellow metal lost almost $80/oz in an hour after a single sale order of 1 million ounces or 31 tonnes.

Platinum on Friday changed hands for $1,690 an ounce. Platinum traded as low as $1,400 an ounce at the end of last year.

Apart from deep cultural attachments gold is also preferred over platinum because the latter precious metal can sometimes be mistaken for much cheaper silver:

“The demand for platinum ornaments is hardly 15 per cent of the overall jewellery sales, due to limited options available in this segment. The remaining, 85 per cent, continues to be jewellery items made of gold,” said Hemendra Rengre, store manager of Lagu Bandhu, a leading jewellery retailer in Mumbai.

A couple of months ago when platinum prices were hovering below gold prices, platinum jewellery sales accounted for 25-30 per cent of the total, according to noted jewellers.

Continue reading at The Business Standard.