Gold

During the same period last year gold imports stood at just $2.83 million on account of the nationwide lockdown. The surge in gold imports pushed India's trade deficit to $15.1 billion in April 2021 as against $6.76 billion a year ago. India's merchandise imports grew in April 2021, rising to $45.72 billion, with an increase of 167.05 per cent over $17.12 billion in April 2020.

The government, in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India, has decided to allow discount of Rs 50 per gram from the issue price to those investors who apply online and the payment is made through digital mode. For such investors, the issue price of the Gold Bond will be Rs 4,727 per gram of gold.

According to a report by Motilal Oswal Institutional Equities, total consumer demand for gold in India, which includes jewellery, bars, and coins, witnessed a 37.4 per cent year on year growth in 1QCY21 to 140 ton. On a QoQ basis, demand was down 24.8 per cent.

For NBFCs, the average portfolio LTV as on December 31, 2020, was 63-67 per cent, while average LTV on incremental disbursements in the October-December 2020 quarter was 70 per cent. The LTV discipline is also evident in interest receivables remaining at just 2-4 per cent of the loan book over the past few years.

The April contract of gold on the MCX is currently trading at Rs 44,888 per 10 gram, lower by Rs 133.00 or 0.30 per cent from its previous close. CapitalVia's weekly commodity report said that for this week, traders should look forward to 'sell-on-rise' opportunity from Rs 45,200, keeping stop loss of around the previous resistance level of Rs 45,650, for aiming target of Rs 44,635.

In a blogpost, Russ Koesterich, portfolio manager for BlackRock's Global Allocation Fund, said: "Gold's underperformance might be more tolerable for investors, except for the fact that it has also been failing as an equity hedge."