Gold Shines Bright as Biggest Jewelry Market Boosts Options Bets

Savio Shetty

Sun, Mar 9, 2025, 4:00 PM 2 min read

(Bloomberg) -- The world’s biggest jewelry marketplace is boosting its golden bets.

Most Read from Bloomberg

• NJ College to Merge With State School After Financial Stress

• Trump Administration Plans to Eliminate Dozens of Housing Offices

• Where New York City's Zoning Reform Will Add Housing

• Buffalo’s Billion-Dollar Freeway Fix Is connected Ice, But Not Because of Trump

• Inside the ‘Not Architecture’ of High Line Designers Diller Scofidio + Renfro

With the precious metallic mounting successive records this year, jewelers and retail traders successful India are turning to options connected golden futures some for speculation and to hedge carnal holdings. Cheaper than futures, the bets person gained caller entreaty with the caller surge successful bullion, according to Sugandha Sachdeva, laminitis of fiscal probe steadfast SS WealthStreet.

The summation successful capitalist involvement has go evident connected the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd., India’s starring commodities bourse: The mean regular turnover of options connected golden futures surged to 605 cardinal rupees ($7 billion) successful February, representing 26% of the full options measurement connected the speech — the biggest proportionality since October 2021. Options connected crude contracts inactive led the trading, but their stock fell to 52% from much than 70% wide past year.

Concerns implicit US President Trump’s tariffs argumentation sent lipid to a six-month debased past week, pushing investors toward assets deemed safer, similar bullion — up much than 7% since his inauguration successful January. While the trading of options volition support evolving, marketplace players are mostly bullish connected gold, said Gnanasekar Thiagarajan, manager of commodity probe steadfast Commtrendz Research.

“Trump uses daze worth — 20%-30% tariff — and past negotiates. All of this uncertainty is bullish gold,” helium said.

The precious metallic occupies a revered presumption successful India, wherever it’s seen not lone arsenic a store of worth and awesome of wealth, but besides arsenic a ineffable plus imbued with auspicious significance. Gold jewelry, which fell successful astir each the countries past year, slipped lone 2% for India aft a July chopped successful import duties spurred demand, allowing the federation to retake its spot arsenic the largest jewelry market.

As the metallic deed grounds levels successful February, trading of options connected its futures for the period was astir triple the 2024 average, MCX information show. Meanwhile, the mean regular turnover for options connected lipid futures dropped to 1.2 trillion rupees, the slightest since June.

In the US, trading of golden options astir doubled past period from February 2024, according to CME Group Inc.

“Traders shifted distant from crude lipid options arsenic they recovered amended opportunities successful gold,” said Rahul Kalantri, vice president for commodities astatine Mehta Equities Ltd.