I’ve been asked on how someone can find the daily gold rate in India a few times in the past couple of weeks, and I think there is a little bit of confusion when people see different places selling gold at different prices, and people feel that they’re being cheated or just wonder why there are so many different prices.
You see different gold rates at different places because some websites show the rate of gold futures, some of gold coins, others wholesale gold, and in some cases it is the NAV of a gold ETF.
To make matters worse, there exists a difference even when the same thing is being sold. So, you can expect a price difference between the gold coin between from one jeweler to another, between various banks, and of course between a bank and a jeweler.
When you decide to buy physical gold – make sure you find out where you are going to sell it after-wards. It is not correct to assume that a higher price at the time of buying will lead to a higher price at the time of selling too.
You could face a situation where you paid a premium to buy gold, but had to sell it off at a discount, so make sure you research where you are going to sell your gold very carefully before you make your buying decision.
Given all this – here are some options on where you can look for gold rates in India.
Track daily prices of gold
If your goal is track the day to day movement of gold, then the most convenient way for you is to add a gold ETF in your online portfolio tool like Rediff Money Portfolio or Moneycontrol’s portfolio.
This will give you a good measure of how gold prices have moved in the past because Gold ETF NAVs reflect the underlying gold they hold. However, this price is only good to track movement of gold and not buying physical gold because these are prices specific to the ETFs. So, if you add the Quantum Gold ETF to your portfolio then one unit of that ETF reflects half a gram of gold, but you can’t really buy a half a gram gold coin, though I think some banks were giving half a gram gold coin free with bigger purchases some time ago. Did anyone get a free gold coin like that?
If you don’t want to create a portfolio specifically for this then the link below will show you the NAV of Benchmark gold ETF.
| S. No. | ETF | NAV on Nov 8 2010 | Source |
| 1. | Benchmark BeeS | 1967.73 | Link |
Buy Gold Coins
If you want to find gold rate in India because you are interested in buying gold coins, then you will have to use a combination of online and offline search.
The online search works for banks which sell gold coins like SBI because you can see the rate of SBI’s gold coins online on their website, which gets updated frequently.
However, the rate of post office gold coins are not available online, so you will have to necessarily go to a post office to find out the post office gold coin rate.
I haven’t found any prominent jewelers displaying their gold coins rate online, so you will have to visit your nearest showroom to see what the going rate is, or if you know of a place online then please leave a comment, and I’ll update the post.
Here is a list of banks selling gold coins, and links to their prices online. Keep in mind that these gold coins are sold by banks at a premium, and they don’t buy them back, so you will have to go to a local jeweler to sell it. Several readers have faced trouble doing this because the jeweler insists on deducting a greater percentage than they would have on gold coins sold by their own shop. So, please research this carefully before making any purchase decisions.
Apart from this all major newspapers publish gold rates, and you can view it on their site, so if you click on Business Line’s website – you will see the day’s gold rate on the top right.
| S. No. | Bank |
20 gms gold coin Price on 8th November 2010 |
Source |
| 1. | HDFC Bank (includes sales tax, whereas the other banks below don’t) |
47,549 |
|
| 2. | SBI |
43,285 |
|
| 3. | Kotak |
45,327 |
|
| 4. | Corporation Bank |
46,559 |
|
| 5. | Bank of Baroda |
42,507 |
|
| 6. | Bank of India |
43,451 |
Conclusion
Unfortunately, finding something as elementary as the gold rate in India sounds simple enough, but when you dig deep into it, there are several options you have, and that makes the task slightly complicated.
Where you check largely depends on what your end – goal is, and one thing I’d want to emphasize again is that just because you are paying a premium or a higher price at the time of buying gold doesn’t guarantee that you will get a premium at the time of selling also, so make sure you research how are you going to sell your gold before you make any buying decisions.
who fixes the gold rate in india
It is decided by demand and supply and based on INR rate of gold in international prices. There is no single authority that does this.
gold price mainly dependant on folloing factores
1 U S DOLLOR
it is main factor thate is effiect on gold pice
Gold and Silver rates are becoming higher and higher in the same way the the purity of Silver and Gold are not maintained by the Jewellary shops. Recently I asked one (NAC-T.Nagar) for giving mentioned on bill of the percentage of silver (i.e. 70% or 80% or 90%) but they refused to mention in the bill, they said, the customer should believe the shop. I changed my mind and not buy the 500 gm silver from them.
That’s just ridiculous, good thing you didn’t buy from them, and that’s a good idea. I think everyone should ask their jeweler to mention the percentage of silver or gold in the jewelery when they buy it.
I don’t know about Silver but, Gold coins are sealed pack from the company producing them. e.g. RSBL makes Gold Coins of various purities and these are mentioned on the sealed pack.
I guess Silver Coins should also be available same way.
This mostly happens when you buy loose gold or silver.
princejewellery.com shows the gold rate online
Hi,
When i wanted to sell the gold coins to one of the Jewellers they are charging 5% of the cash which i get from them on selling it. Is there any means to sell without sharing the percentage?
Hi, everyone faces that issue and at present I don’t know of a way to sell your gold without a deduction.
Thanks for putting up this post. Your post came at the right time. And yes, you have to sell gold to the local jewelers at a discount. The discount varies from jeweler to jeweler. I earlier thought buying gold in physical was better but, now I feel buying ETFs is better.
Also, I observe that Gold coin prices of Banks vary above 11% in some cases. Why is that? Also, I understand that 1% VAT is charged on Gold Sale. Mr. Vishal has said 10.25%. Am i mistaken or is 1% on re-sale?
Apologies, had not verified the 10.25%. I had roughly calculated it to be between 10-11%. So the figure.
I personally invest in Gold, both, physical and ETF. Reason, ETF’s are good to trade and make some money. The difficulty of selling physical Gold just helps you to accumulate and invest for the future. Also only today I read an article on ET- Pg 30, suggesting the return of the Gold Standard. It is always good to be prepared.
After your comment, I clicked through the various rates and saw that HDFC provides rates with taxes as applicable in Maharashtra, Kotak with and without taxes, and others exclude taxes, and that explains the big variation. Thanks for pointing this out. I will update this post so that this point is reflected more clearly.
I’m not sure about VAT & sales tax yet, so will look that up, and update later. Thanks again!
Hi,
india.thebulliondesk.com
This website provides live rates for Gold, in line with international rates. It also takes into account the currency conversion and that international rates are calculated in oz(s). This becomes a starting measure when you decide to buy gold on a particular day. Remember to add the 10.25% Sales tax to the figure to determine the rate at which you will get to buy Gold.
Remember that the spot price so obtained is a starting measure. Gold Futures trade at a 1-1.5% discount. Gold Guinea at 1-1.5% discount to the futures. ETF’s at 1-1.5% discount to the future price.
I hope this is helpful.
Thanks Vishal, this is certainly quite helpful. Do you have any tips for people looking to sell their gold also because that’s one area a lot of people have faced issues.
That one is rather difficult. The local jeweler will be willing to strike a deal, however his rate will most certainly be at a discount. Other options could include Mannapuram Gold Finance, SBI Gold account. These help to get liquidity, however I dont think everyone would be comfortable with the idea. You could also approach the stock exchanges if you have sufficient quantity to deliver in terms of coins. If my memory serves me correct NCDEX does have a product that helps you to sell gold guineas. But of course each of these are painstakingly lengthy.
Thanks for your response Vishal. Most retail investors will probably not have big enough amounts to go the NCDEX way, so probably looking at ETFs or at least making sure you have a good way to sell is a must for retail investors wanting to get in on gold. Thank you!