Mumbai, August 10
Soaring gold prices has resulted in people selling off some of their old jewellery, according to jewellers in Mumbai. According to jewellers at Zaveri Bazaar in south Mumbai, the number of people selling old jewellery has increased after gold prices crossed the Rs 25,000 mark earlier this week.

"We are seeing more people come in to sell their old jewellery,"says Ratanlal Choksi, a jewellery shop owner in the area. According to him, many of the people who come to sell their old jewellery had bought ornaments at far lower prices often decades ago. "Many of them are senior citizens or people who need money to start their business or for their personal expenses," says Choksi.

According to those in the trade, sale of old gold jewellery, or scrap gold as it is called, zooms every time gold prices make a new high.

"We saw a large number of people come in to sell gold when prices touched Rs 18,000 per 10 grams two years ago," says Choksi. The Bombay Bullion Association, which tracks sales of scrap gold, says approximately 100 tonnes of old jewellery are sold in the country every year. Mumbai alone accounts for some 15 kilograms of old jewellery sold every day, according to the BBA. "This time sale of scrap jewellery has increased by 80 per cent in Mumbai," says Suresh Hundia, president, BBA.

According to those in the trade, sale of scrap gold has increased in many parts of the country. Simultaneously sale of new gold jewellery has almost come to a halt.

"People are not buying new gold jewellery because of high prices and also because it is considered inauspicious at the moment," says Amit Kothari, another jeweller.

But the trade expects gold sales to pick up after the Ganesh festival when people start buying jewellery for Dasehra and Diwali. The buzz is that gold prices could touch Rs 27,000 per 10 grams.

However demand for gold continues to remain undiminished across India, the world's biggest consumer of the yellow metal. According to the World Gold Council (WGC), demand for gold grew by more than 26 per cent in India during the first quarter of 2011. However, buyers are investors who are buying gold coins and bars. Demand for jewellery is far more subdued though, says the WGC.

Chandigarh, August 10
The decline in sales of its various models in July has prompted the country’s largest car manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki, to enhance its product basket by launching new cars; invest in infrastructure; and in creating marketing and sales infrastructure in tier -3 towns.

Though the company officials maintain that the decline in July sales was not to worry about and was mainly because of negative market sentiment, Maruti is now going all out to ensure that it retains its market position in the passenger car segment, when the total car market in India crosses four million units in 2015.

Talking to The Tribune here today, Mayank Pareek, managing executive officer, marketing and sales, Maruti Suzuki, said the company was planning to increase its product basket and have a presence in all segments of cars, besides creating new segments. “We already have 14 models in our product portfolio, and will continue to add more models. A new version of Swift will be launched later this month, and this year, we will continue to have a mixed bag of new launches and strengthening our existing portfolio,” he said. Though he refused to comment on the launch of a new 800 cc car, market analysts say the car maker is expected to launch a new small car soon, which will be priced at around Rs 2 lakh.

Pareek also informed that the company will be investing Rs 6,000 crore in creating two new assembly lines at Manesar, besides setting up a research and development centre and a testing track at Rohtak. “The two new assembly lines are being set up, which will help us increase our production capacity from the present 1.20 million units per annum to 1.75 million units per annum. One of these assembly lines will get into commercial production by the end of this year. The R&D centre and testing track will be commissioned by 2013-2014,” he said.

He also said they had increased the production capacity of Swift from 10,000 units per month to 16,000 units per month, by shifting production of Dzire from Manesar to Gurgaon.

He also said the company was investing in recruiting manpower to increase its engineering capability and was working on increasing its marketing and sales infrastructure by opening stockyards and increasing its dealerships so as to have dealerships in all towns having a population of over 50,000 by year 2014-15.

Mumbai, August 10
The RBI is expected to continue tightening policy in coming months until inflation peaks, despite increasing uncertainty over a global economic slowdown and an extended period of easy policy in the developed world.

Further tightening in Asia's third-largest economy would contrast sharply with the approach of central banks in China and other parts of the world, which are increasingly expected to put plans for more rate rises on ice until the global outlook improves.

Heavy selling in financial markets in recent sessions, Europe's festering debt crisis and the Federal Reserve's pledge on Tuesday to keep rates near zero for at least two more years have only reinforced that cautious view.

The RBI next meets to review policy on September 16. It has already raised rates 11 times since March 2010 as it struggles to rein in stubbornly high inflation, with the last hike being a shock 50 basis points last month.

Some players have begun to price in a pause in rate hikes, as seen by a retreat in bond yields and fall in the short-end rate swaps. But inflationary pressures in India show few signs of abating even as global commodity prices have recoiled from recent highs.

The RBI can't take its eyes off inflation despite renewed concerns about the health of the global economy. — Reuters

New Delhi, August 10
Domestic passenger car sales have fallen for the first time after 30 months of continuous growth, registering a 15.76 per cent decline in July this year mainly due to hikes in lending rates and lower production by market leader Maruti Suzuki during the month.

Car sales in the country stood at 1,33,747 units in July, 2011, as against 1,58,767 units in the same month last year, according to figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) today.

"This is the first time since January, 2009, that car sales have fallen. Interest rates and fuel prices were going up in recent months and that led to an overall negative sentiment in the market," SIAM Director-General Vishnu Mathur told reporters here.

The car market last witnessed a fall in January, 2009, when sales shrunk by 3.16 per cent year-on-year. Last month's decline is the steepest since November, 2008, when car segment sales fell by 19.34 per cent, he added.

The production loss at Maruti's Manesar facility due to preparations for the launch of its new Swift model and realignment of its DZiRE model's output also severely impacted sales, he said.

SIAM Senior Director Sugato Sen said non-availability of certain components like castings also impacted the output of many car-makers — PTI

Chandigarh, August 10
Banks in Punjab have extended loans worth Rs 1.19 lakh crore between July 2010 and June 2011, showing an increase of 21.98 per cent, against 17.8 per cent during the same period last year. However, bank deposits seem to be losing attraction in the state.

The issue came up for discussion during the State-Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) for Punjab held here today. The deposit mobilisation growth in the state had come down to 7.5 per cent, as compared to national deposit growth of 18 per cent.

The bankers were apprised that the deposit mobilisation had turned negative in the urban sector (having over one-third share in total deposits). This meant that people living in cities were withdrawing their cash from banks and investing in other high return yielding options.

It was pointed out that the banks deposits in urban areas went down by over 6 per cent, but the deposits from rural and semi-urban centres shot up by 16.58 per cent and 17.38 per cent, respectively. The aggregate deposit of banks in Punjab went up by just 7.56 per cent to Rs 1.46 lakh crore between July 2010 and June 2011, against 10 per cent in the same period last year. Interestingly, according to the bankers committee report for Haryana, which was also released today, bank deposits grew by 22 per cent in the same period.

During the SLBC for Haryana, it was informed that the banks in the state had extended loans worth Rs 20,586 crore between June 2010 and July 2011.