The market was anticipating a blockbuster day for the jewellery company stocks on the Akshaya Tritiya Day on Monday since the gold prices had been retreating and the stock market was gaining.
Negative developments
But in the end, the day proved to be a most forgettable day for the leading listed jewellery stocks with most of them ending in the red, apparently because too many negative developments came too fast and the brouhaha over Akshaya Tritiya could not sustain the momentum in their share prices.
Titan Industries shares closed at Rs 284.95, a loss of Rs 3.65 with a trading volume of 23.04 lakh shares, on the NSE. The stock had touched a high of Rs 291.90 in the exchange before retreating.
Thangamayil Jewellery rose to a high of Rs 205 in the NSE but closed sharply down at Rs 190.50, a loss of Rs 2.20. Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri also ended the day with a marginal loss of 40 paise at Rs 223.
Shree Ganesh Jewellery ended the day at Rs 106.05, down by Rs 2.40, Rajesh Exports closed at Rs 125.10, down by Rs 2.70 and P.C. Jeweller Ltd shed 50 paise while closing at Rs 115.40.
This counter also witnessed a trading volume of 2.21 lakh shares.
Gitanjali Gems, which appeared to be holding on to their previous close of Rs 600.85, however, wilted to close in the red at Rs 597.40, a loss of Rs 5.40. The counter witnessed a trading volume of 4.98 lakh shares.
The sharp turnaround in the performance of the jewellery stocks came as a surprise since many of them were moving in the opposite direction during early hours of trading when the overall market was down.
Extended ETF session
In fact, even the stock exchanges, hoping to cash in on the ‘yellow fever’, had extended the trading session for gold ETFs on Monday till 7 p.m. It is not clear whether the ETFs would put up a different show by attracting more inflows.
The Sensex crashed in one of its biggest single day losses in recent times after DGFT data revealed that the trade deficit was widening. What had fuelled this deficit apparently was the gold and silver imports in April when it jumped by 138 per cent to $7.5 billion from $3.1 billion in the year-ago period.
With gold imports putting pressure on the current account deficit, the RBI on Monday imposed restrictions on import of the yellow metal by banks.
yegya.narayanan@thehindu.co.in