MUMBAI: India gold futures and spot markets remained dull on Tuesday as buyers and dealers stayed away from major transactions hoping that the high prices of the yellow metal would come down below Rs 13,000 per ten grams this week. Dwindling demand because to zooming prices has put the booming gold market in India stagnant conditions as traders said there are more sellers than buyers for the yellow metal. In the last few days and weeks, gold prices in India have been going up, touching nearly Rupees 14,450 per ten grams last week. This week gold prices cooled down to touch around the Rupees 14,400 mark. On Tuesday, gold prices at India’s largest commodity bourse the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) was trading at Rs 13,992 per ten grams, a drop of Rs 400 compared to the prices last week. Similarly, in the bullion markets of Mumbai and New Delhi, gold prices eased below Rs 14,000 per ten grams, giving hopes to traders that customers will flock to the shops as soon the prices cool off. ”We hope there will be good trading in gold on Thursday and Friday, as people buy gold jewellery as gift for the Valentine’s Day on February 14. Gold jewellery is the most sought after gift during Valentine's Day in India,” said Manish Agarwal, a gold dealer in Delhi’s Chandni Chawk told Commodity Online. Agarwal said high prices of gold have so far prompted many buyers to hold back purchases last week hoping that the gold prices would come down. Traders and dealers are not willing to buy new gold stocks because “lots of unsold stocks are remaining with them in the warehouses.” Analysts said that the overheated futures and spot gold market in India have lost steam as prices dropped in the wake of the fall of gold futures in the global market against gains made by the US dollar. But some of them have predicted that global economic meltdown, lure for gold exchange traded funds and investment appeal will drive India's gold prices to a record Rupees 16,000 levels per ten grams in three months. According to Chairman of Gitanjali Group, Mehul Choksi, gold prices are rising and rising and it would not be a surprise if gold prices zoom to Rupees 16,000 per ten grams by April this year. "Demand for gold as an investment opportunity is going up day by day among Indian investors. Added to this is the new apeal for gold ETFs in India," Choksi told reporters. He said people are going to invest more money in gold ETFs. "Gold ETFs a safer bet in times of crisis financial markets and currency movements," he told reporters last week. Trading in bullion contracts contributed Rs 2,023,441 crore to the total turnover of India’s commodity exchanges during the first nine months of the current fiscal, according to a data from the commodity market regulator Foward Markets Commission (FMC). Meanwhile, India's gold collection under exchange-traded funds increased a marginal 1.1 percent on month to 5.39 tonnes in January. India has five Gold ETFs which together hold a dismal quantity of over 5 tonnes compared to the 15,000 tonnes of gold that Indian households own.

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