Price of gold will stabilise: Tanishq COO via @tatacompanies

Gold has certainly not lost its glow, with 16-year record high prices and the just ended Shraadh season, for the Indian household as well as jewellery houses. Although Navratras, considered an auspicious week for any new purchase, began two days ago, walkins at small jewellery showrooms have gradually picked up, and the big daddies in the business like the Tata owned Tanishq have lined up mega campaigns for the festival season for customers.

And why not? The stakes are high as the Indian gold market is estimated to be worth Rs 51,000 crore with Chennai and New Delhi leading the market share charts and sales during Dusshera, Dhanteras and Diwali contributing more than significantly to the overall topline. "The whole of South contributes more than 40 per cent of the Indian market with the Tamil Nadu market estimated to be worth Rs 10,000 crore and Andhra Pradesh's about Rs 6,000 crores," says Tanishq regional business manager Yashwant Kumar.

The high gold prices Rs 6,740 per 10 grams in Hyderabad is not a dampener for a customer because a fear factor, fuelled by prices to appreciate further in the near-term globally, is working in favour of jewellery shops. Tanishq, which has launched a specially designed campaign New Tales of Tradition for the festive season, feels gold prices will stabilise in the near term.

Speaking to this newspaper, chief operating officer C.K. Venkataraman said, "Prices may keep on rising in the next two months but will stabilise thereafter at Rs 6,500-6,600 per 10 grams." On the reasons for prices stabilising Mr Venkataraman, who was here to inaugurate the fourth Tanishq boutique in Hyderabad, explained, "Prices recovered after touching highs in the first half of this year and ended at Rs 6,000 by April. Similarly this time around a stable outlook should be expected too... Tanishq, which has 75 jewellery boutiques in 51 cities, plans to add 15 more this year."

Mr Venkataraman said that the company was also looking at a presence in the US, but talks are still in the exploratory stage. The company expects to touch a turnover of Rs 750 crore this fiscal from Rs 535 crore logged in the previous fiscal.