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London
17 October 2009
Soaring gold prices are having an unexpected impact on a major
religious holiday celebrated in South Asia and many other parts of the
world starting Saturday. The Festival of Lights, or Diwali, is the
biggest holiday of the year for Hindus and other religions in South
Asia and thousands of Hindus are expected to gather in London to
celebrate. But one Diwali tradition, buying gold, is changing because
of high prices.
It's
a busy time of year for jewelers in London's East End. Many in this
neighborhood are from South Asia and are celebrating Diwali. Store
manager Vikram Santilal says buying gold bars or coins is traditional
at this time of year.
"During the Diwali season, you have the
days running up towards Diwali and the five days after Diwali, where
coins, investment bars will be bought because it's very auspicious to
be bought, so you do find people to come in to but that memento as
well," he said.
But with the price of gold at an all time
high, things are changing. Customers are looking at other precious
metals, like platinum. Now only about $300 more an ounce than gold.
"There
is change in some people traditionally expected platinum to be an
expensive metal, people are looking at it in the same terms as gold
values," said Santilal.
Another jeweler, John Jacobs, is seeing
a different trend. "The gold price has gone up so high, so what you
normally get for 100 pounds earlier, you don't get that much for the
same amount, they get a better thing for the same price when it comes
to diamond," he said.
Jacobs says both the old and the young are switching to diamonds this year. Their price has remained stable.
"The
main difference I have seen is people are moving from 22 carat gold
jewelry to diamond jewelry, maybe what they say is true is diamonds are
forever, and diamonds always is a lady's best friend," he said.
The
economic recession is also affecting Diwali buying, jewelers say in
general the pieces are smaller, whether gold, platinum or diamonds.
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