KARACHI: After almost a month gap, the All Pakistan Gem and Jewellers Association (APGJA) on Tuesday resumed issuance of daily gold rates.

The association announced 10-gram and one-tola rates at Rs171,039 and Rs199,500 against Rs184,585 and Rs215,000 issued on Sept 12, showing a fall of Rs13,546 and Rs15,500, respectively.

On Tuesday, the local rates were fixed based on the world gold rate of $1,856 per ounce as compared to $1,911 on Sept 12, depicting a drop of $55 per ounce.

Since the law enforcement agencies had initiated a crackdown on gold mafia, speculators and smugglers from the second week of September, traders had been issuing different rates for one-tola ranging from Rs190,000-230,000 depending on the world market rate and rupee-dollar parity.

It remained a mystery whether the rates issued by APGJA on Tuesday were determined on open market or interbank rupee-dollar rates as the rates were previously being fixed on open market dollar rates. However, a senior APGJA office-bearer ran a message in the media that local rates would be issued from Tuesday depending on the interbank dollar rate.

Daily rate issuance begins after a month’s gap

On Tuesday, one dollar was trading at Rs280.51 in the interbank market as against Rs307 on Sept 12, thus definitely bringing down the landed price of imported raw materials and finished goods or at least nullifying the impact of rising world prices.

Consumers had witnessed an all-time high rate of Rs240,000 per tola in the second week of May when global prices were at $2,031 per ounce and the dollar was trading at around Rs288.

The association’s chief Haroon Rasheed Chand had assured the law enforcement officials last month of promoting legal trade, encouraging documentation and computerisation of trade, bringing physical trading instead of speculative, weekly transactions and issuing daily market rate updates.

Jewellers said the market opened at a time when world gold prices have come under pressure amid escalating tensions in the Middle East in the aftermath of the Israel-Hamas war, but the strengthening of the rupee may dilute the impact of rising world gold prices.

They said the situation regarding fixing daily domestic rates, crackdown on speculators, benefits of a falling dollar and the global trend in bullion rates would be clear in the current week.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2023