THE GLITTER STAYS, FOR NOW

A growing middle-class in India and losses in US and European indices are expected to keep gold prices high, making it a bankable investment option.

- SALIL PANCHAL

Ever since gold prices have been on the rise in 2020, there has been a flurry of activity at wealth management firms such as Cube Wealth, which is in partnership with digital gold platform SafeGold. As with stocks, demand for digital gold as an investment has been on the rise this year, in anticipation of prices moving up further.

The recent slide in global equity indices and weak interest rates have led to this fresh attention to gold as an investment option.

“We have seen a near doubling of customers from a year ago and a 15 percent jump in transactions since last December,” says Gaurav Mathur, founder and managing director of SafeGold, which has about 10 million customers in India.

People can buy, sell, gift or take delivery of 24 karat physical gold at any denomination online for a transaction fee. SafeGold’s daily transactions is worth ₹2.5 crore and about 6 to 8 kg, says Mathur. The gold price is based on the commercial local bullion market price.

All major European and US equity indices have registered near or more than double digit losses in the four weeks to February 29. Expectedly, gold prices have firmed up. International gold prices are at a near seven-year high of $1,609 per troy ounce (₹37,508 per 10 gm), its highest level since February 2013. Domestic bullion prices in Mumbai were trading at ₹43,180 per 10 grams.

India’s tendency of buying gold during uncertain times is playing out again. According to latest data from Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), gold Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) witnessed a net investment of ₹202 crore in January 2020, compared to just ₹27 crore in December 2019.

In the past, the global economic crisis of 2008 had seen investors worldwide scurrying for safer options such as gold and the US dollar.