We Indians tend to be conservative as far as investments are concerned. Why is that? Perhaps because several generations of Indians have faced hardship and deprivation due to exploitation by our ‘rulers’ – both overseas and Indian. Lack of education and infrastructure have contributed to the tendency to ‘hoard’ rather than ‘invest’.
For generations, two of the avenues for investing our little savings have been in land and gold ornaments. This is true even today in the hinterland – where infrastructure and banking services remain primitive or non-existent.
In larger towns and cities, infrastructure and services have improved to the extent that other avenues of investment – like post office and bank fixed deposits, mutual funds and equity are readily available. But our fascination for investing in real estate and gold has not dimmed.
In this month’s guest post, Nishit suggests that it may be time to reduce investment in gold. Debt and equity investments are likely to provide better returns in the foreseeable future.
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Indians are obsessed with Gold. The most common question which I am always asked is: “Should we buy Gold now or should we wait?” The Government has increased the price of Gold in India by increasing import duty - thereby reducing Gold imports and positively impacting the Current Account Deficit.
Gold by itself has no value in terms of utility and returns. Its status as a safe haven in times of uncertainty lends value to it. Gold’s price rises when uncertainty increases in the world. Earlier, the US dollar was linked to Gold’s price, but after it was delinked and the printing presses took over, the US dollar weakened. More dollars were required to buy the same amount of Gold.
Gold’s price had seen a parabolic rise in the past few years on the basis of fears of a worldwide economic collapse led by the US. Quantitative easing, the flooding of the markets with additionally printed dollars led to Gold’s price spurting up. It finally touched a peak of US $1920 in September 2011.
Gold’s price has been on a steady decline since then and has corrected to about US $1200 from $1920 - a decline of about 37.5% from its peak value. It had risen from a low of US $264 hit in 2001-2002 to $1920. The great Gold bull run may be over for now.
There are various reasons for this prognosis and they are:
- The World economy seems to be recovering and the immediate crisis seems to over
- US is reducing Quantitative easing; the easy money was one of the main reasons for Gold’s price to sky rocket
When Gold’s price hit a peak of $1920, the Rupee was at 46. Now, when Gold’s price has corrected 37.5% in Dollar terms, the Rupee has depreciated about 35%. Hence, in Rupee terms - thanks also to Government duties – Gold’s price has remained almost stagnant. The future movement in Gold’s price can come due to the Rupee weakening further, leading to appreciation in Gold’s price. The Rupee has been stable for the past few months.
Conclusion:
The value of Gold investing as a portfolio choice is no longer as significant as it was say about a couple of years back. Gold should still occupy maybe 5% of your portfolio instead of the earlier 10-20%. Thanks to the weakening rupee, there is still a chance to exit Gold at a very small loss or profit. Better options can be seen in debt or equity currently.
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(Nishit Vadhavkar is a Quality Manager working at an IT MNC. Deciphering economics, equity markets and piercing the jargon to make it understandable to all is his passion. "We work hard for our money, our money should work even harder for us" is his motto.
Nishit blogs at Money Manthan.)
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