Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed to citizens to avoid unnecessary gold purchases for “one year” apart from other measures to conserve foreign exchange reserves, amid the ongoing crisis in the Middle East region.
Modi requested citizens to avoid non-essential foreign trips and destination weddings abroad, and stressed that reducing imports during global uncertainty would help strengthen India’s economic stability amid rising international prices triggered by conflicts in the Middle East.
He had called for a series of economic sacrifices from the public, citing the ongoing conflict in West Asia and its pressure on India’s foreign exchange reserves.
Reacting to PM Modi’s appeal, the share prices of jewellery companies tumbled to as low as 9 per cent in the early trade on Monday. Titan emerged as top Nifty loser by falling 7% or 291 points to trade at 4,222.
Other jewellery stocks like Kalyan Jewellers were down by 9% to 389, Senco Gold down by 9% or 31 points to 333 on the BSE, PC Jeweller also tumbled 5% at the BSE.
PM Modi had urged citizens to reduce petrol and diesel consumption, use metro services, carpool, shift to electric vehicles and work from home where possible. He also asked people to postpone gold purchases and foreign travel for one year and reduce the use of edible oil and chemical fertilisers.
“We have to save foreign exchange by any means. We got into work-from-home, virtual meetings, video conferencing, and many other methods during Covid-19. We got used to them. The need of the hour is to resume those methods.”
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on PM Modi calling the appeal evidence of “failure”.
“Yesterday, Modi ji asked the public to make sacrifices—don’t buy gold, don’t go abroad, use less petrol, cut down on fertiliser and cooking oil, take the metro, work from home. These aren’t sermons—they’re proof of failure,” Rahul Gandhi said in a post on X.
Gold prices climbed above $4,720 per ounce on Friday, reaching their highest level since 22nd April and heading for a weekly gain of more than 2%, as optimism surrounding a potential US-Iran peace agreement eased concerns that persistent inflation could keep interest rates higher for longer.
Despite a recent exchange of fire between the US and Iran, the biggest test of their month-long ceasefire, Iran said the situation had stabilised, while US President Donald Trump confirmed that the ceasefire remained “in effect”.