A big part of Delhi’s population has blocked jewellery shops on Wednesday, to purchase gold on the auspicious occasion of ‘Dhanteras.’

This gives a huge fillip to trade in the metal that has crossed all its previous record highs throughout the world.

Jewellers told that gold prices have climbed Rs 210 per ten gram at Rs 10,650 since last ‘Dhanteras.’

Jewellers were anticipating that the rising gold rates would have an effect on festival sales, but their projection goes wrong when some of them reported over 40% increase in earnings against Dhanteras last year.

Amita Roy, a businesswoman, said, “There is no place to even stand at most of the jewellery shops in Old Delhi. Most of the ornaments I wanted for my son’s wedding are sold out. So I had to order them again.”

Other jewellers told that as compared to the last year’s sale, the demand for gold coins has also increased significantly this year. Regardless of increase in gold prices all jewellery shops are crammed with buyers.

Dhanteras is the propitious occasion to purchase gold ahead of Diwali. “The stores may be crowded but I still prefer to buy it around this time,” said housewife Neeru Sandhu.

Sudeep Bandyopadhyay, CEO of Reliance Money said that sales were projected to go on until later in the night.

Bishen Seth, general secretary of the Chandni Chowk Jewellers Association, said, “People are buying more of pendents and gold coins this year.”

Manjunath Jyotisagarm of Gitanjali Gems stated, “We are set to do a business of Rs 20 crore today across the country with a 30-40 per cent increase over last Dhanteras in terms of sales, volume and transactions.”