August 1, 2002	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 21,1423

DUBAI, July 31: Lower bullion prices boosted Dubai gold sales in July, usually a slow month, but demand is expected to be lacklustre in August because of the traditional summer lull, traders said on Wednesday.

Offtake this month was good compared with June because prices dropped, said one trader, adding that expatriates have bought jewellery and gold bars to take home.

He said Dubai’s 10-tola (TT) bar averaged around 4,415 dirhams ($1,202) in June compared with 4,250 dirhams in July.

A TT bar is 3.746 ounces of 24 carat gold. Traders quoted the TT bar between 4,203 and 4,210 on Tuesday.

Another trader said demand would only pick up again in September ahead of India’s festive season that begins in August and peaks in October and November with Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.

The market will be subdued for the next month and a half and then it will start to pick up, the trader said.

Dubai, the Gulf Arab’s tourism hub, is a regional centre for gold re-export and marketing.

About 70 per cent of the UAE’s population of three million are foreigners, mostly from the Indian subcontinent.

Dubai’s once-flourishing bullion trade to India, the world’s largest consumer, has been slashed in recent years by India’s deregulation of the trade.—Reuters