Investors’ appetite for sovereign gold bonds (SGBs) has seen a stellar increase. In the July SGB issue, the government sold bonds worth Rs 2,004 crore, according to official data. This means bonds equivalent to gold worth 4.13 tonnes were sold.
Since the launch of SGBs (November 2015), this has been the best month in terms of quantity of gold sold, and amount raised in the issue.
Owing to the lockdown, most jewellers had shut shop in Q1FY21. As a result, those who wanted to put their money in gold resorted to investing in SGBs and gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
In April-June, gold ETFs saw net inflows of Rs 2,000 crore. However, gold bond sales in the first four months of FY21 have been the highest for any financial year since the launch.
A total of Rs 5112 cr worth more than 10.8 tonnes of SGBs have been sold by the government, raising Rs 5,112 crore ($680 million) in the process. This is almost equal to the gold import bill for April-June 2020.
Courtesy - The Business Standard
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