Record gold prices mute Akshaya Tritiya jewelry buying, shift demand to investments
Akshaya Tritiya lost its old gold rush as buyers chased coins, bars and ETFs instead of heavy jewellery. India’s jewellery demand fell 24% in 2025 while investment demand hit a 2013 high.
Record gold prices have changed the meaning of Akshaya Tritiya in India. Instead of queuing for necklaces and bangles, many buyers are walking into bullion counters for coins, bars and investment products, a shift that left this year’s festival demand visibly subdued and pushed lighter jewellery to the front of the display case.
The pressure point is price. Gold futures in India closed at Rs 154,609 per 10 grams on April 18, nearly 63% higher than at the last Akshaya Tritiya festival. With prices at that level, bullion dealers say gold purchases are no longer clustered around festival dates. Price-sensitive buyers are waiting for dips, spreading their purchases through the year and increasingly treating gold less as adornment and more as a store of value.
The numbers show how deep that change runs. World Gold Council data cited by NDTV showed India’s jewellery demand fell 24% year on year in 2025, while investment demand rose 17% to its highest level since 2013. The council said overall gold demand in India fell 11% last year to 710.9 tonnes, with jewellery demand at 430.5 tonnes and bar-and-coin demand at 280.4 tonnes. In other words, the market is not simply softening; it is being rebalanced from necks and wrists toward vaults and savings accounts.
That rebalancing was visible this Akshaya Tritiya, which fell on April 19, 2026, when demand stayed muted even as a modest pickup in investment buying offered some support. Industry coverage described a steady turn toward lightweight jewellery, coins, bars, ETFs and digital gold, while some retailers reported stronger interest in organised branded chains than in smaller neighbourhood jewellers. For the wedding season now gathering pace, that means fewer buyers are likely to commit to heavy, traditional sets at one time. More are expected to choose slimmer 18K and 22K pieces, buy in stages, or split budgets between a wearable chain and a gold instrument that protects against further price swings.
Trade-body estimates from the Confederation of All India Traders suggest precious-metals business for Akshaya Tritiya could still top Rs 20,000 crore, up from about Rs 16,000 crore last year. But that headline number hides the real story: record prices are not killing demand so much as changing its shape, turning a festival once defined by adornment into a broader, more cautious ritual of investment.
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