February 28, 2008	Thursday	Safar 20, 1429

KARACHI, Feb 27: Gold touched a new peak of Rs19,200 per 10 grams on Tuesday as compared to the previous highest record of Rs19,900 on Monday following continuous increase in world gold prices. Currently a 10-tola gold bar costs Rs224,000.

The international gold price touched the record high of $960 per ounce on Wednesday. On Dec 1, it was $785 per ounce.

In 2006, global gold price had hit the highest level of $759 per ounce while tezabi gold (10 grams) touched the peak level of Rs14,400. The per tola gold rate was Rs16,600. In 2007, bullion rates made several highest records.

Consumers, who will come out for spot buying after Chehlum, will have to bear extra costs.

Those who had booked jewellery sets a few days back, might heave a slight relief. The marriage season will commence next week.

The sale of gold jewellery sets was still laggard, and it might not increase substantially after Chehlum as prices were too high, said a jeweler.

The chairman of All-Pakistan Gem and Jewellers Association, Saeed Mazhar Ali, said gold sales had been slow as far as jewellery sets were concerned, but on the investors’ side, the yellow metal had now become a hot commodity.

He said people in the world markets had lost hopes in investing in currency following reports of recession in the US.

Even stock markets in the world witnessed fluctuation.

In Pakistan, he said rising gold prices had renewed investors’ confidence in the bullion as many players of the other markets also jumped into this business.

People were making investments in gold bars of various sizes as they knew that its prices were unlikely to fall sharply in future, he said.

Local gold prices have gone up by over Rs7,000 per tola since Ramazan. Many people now prefer converting their old ornaments into new ones after mixing while others are opting for low-weight jewellery sets for their daughters on weddings.

Gold imports have been at the bottom owing to rising prices, coupled with the imposition of tax and duties on imports.

The cost of gold imports was just Rs32 per tola, including import duty and income tax, before the 2006-07 budget, but after the imposition of one per cent wealth tax, the cumulative impact of duty and taxes surged to over Rs300 per tola.

Former chairman of All-Pakistan Gem and Jewellers Association Raeesuddin Shaikh said sale of gold jewellery sets had been facing a severe slump for the last three to four months owing to rising prices. However, he said investment activities in gold had surged in the past few months.