00:07hello and welcome to a brand new edition of the big c your one-stop destination to demystify all
00:12the commodity crypto and currency trade i'm manisha gupta on the show today i will be joined
00:17by dilipna ryanan who is the head bullion and treasury at the malabar group and we will also
00:21get you excerpts from my conversation with ragnar ud he's the ceo cco rather at bhp later on the
00:28show but before that let me get you up to speed with the action on the market front stocks on
00:34the
00:34wall street closed tuesday session mildly in the green but the fall in software stocks continues
00:39to keep the gains in check the dow and the nasdaq both add 30 points in the meanwhile the major
00:46markets across asia have remained shut back home the lal street is trading flat as you can see on
00:51your screens on the commodities front it is the crude oil prices which is hovering around that
00:5762 dollars per barrel mark pausing recent losses as investors are assessing progress in u.s iran talks
01:03iran authorities said that the two countries have reached a preliminary understanding on key guiding
01:09principles aimed at resolving their long-running nuclear dispute though a final agreement still
01:15remains distant meanwhile it is the gold prices which have risen to around 4 900 per ounce mark
01:21recouping some of those losses from the two-day decline likely due to a dip buying as market reassessed
01:28the u.s fed reserves monetary policy direction joining us now on the show is dilip narayanan who is head
01:34at
01:34bullion and treasury at malabar group mr narayanan hi thank you so much for joining in first of all your
01:39sense on the prices itself i mean that is something that is keeping everybody confused the kind of
01:44uncertainties that we are looking at in the international markets while we are off highs but quite jittery even now
01:53yeah uh thank you manisha for uh calling me for this session and as you rightly mentioned
01:59the price has been for i mean it's it's it's been uh uh it's been a game changer for almost
02:06uh
02:06almost three weeks now the prices have been very volatile and the various exchanges have increased their
02:13margins accordingly and you know we've been seen we've never seen this kind of a volatility uh you know
02:19maybe not uh not not very nearly at least for 20 30 years we have not seen this kind of
02:26a scenario
02:26where this price had had had kind of volatility which happened uh one of these fridays uh in the
02:33evenings and uh the market uh is reacting to it and uh the these the retail per se also it
02:41is
02:41definitely affecting it uh but as i mentioned in india uh you know you know this you know the retail
02:49sale
02:50has been pretty good and uh and as i mentioned earlier also in one of your interviews very recently
02:58the new you know buyers in the line are the investors who are eager to buy uh you know the
03:07the gold bars and
03:09medallions uh as they feel that the gold price would shoot up more as they were bullish uh and that
03:15is a kind of little taper down now for the last four last three four days but yes we've seen
03:20a good
03:21demand um uh you know when you look at 2025 mr narayan and we've seen uh investment demand higher than
03:28jewelry demand uh how have you seen the trends as 2026 has begun i think that uh that is continuing
03:35and uh it would it would rather continue because of the kind of volatility the gold and silver is uh
03:42is
03:43is is showing and uh apart from that uh you know uh the real the the investors who come in
03:51uh you know
03:52you know from the equity market is also playing a greater role in in in in in uh buying this
03:59investment
04:00bars and and medallions having said that uh with this incremental increase in the margins in in the
04:07in the local exchanges and you know that would that might uh put a stop to the people who would
04:13want
04:14only to speculate in the metal business how have you also seen the kind of uh the movement that we've
04:20seen in the indian markets itself from a premium to perhaps a discount is what the industry participants
04:25tell us right now is how india seems to be reacting to prices not just india that is exactly what
04:30we
04:30are hearing in from china and various other asian countries india was actually again uh premium is is
04:36is is equally been volatile and as i rightly as as you rightly mentioned uh you know last two weeks
04:42india saw the the highest of the premiums uh uh uh you know even the banks and and uh you
04:49know the
04:51even info for for for that matter even the dorade refinery all this all this uh industry players
04:58had seen a high demand the high demand in india and that's the reason the premiums were on on the
05:04uh in kind of uh record high but uh having said that uh as the demand tapers down the volatility
05:11also
05:12in the premium goes down and now we see all of a sudden for the last two to three days
05:16uh uh discount
05:18coming into for the for for the metal uh which was in premium uh till last week so you know
05:25that's
05:26something which you have to very closely monitor while purchasing the raw materials for the retailers
05:32oh absolutely mr naran i can only start guessing on what it would really mean for somebody like you
05:38at malabar to react to these gold prices perhaps continue to strategize as you're looking at your
05:43expansions in india and outside as well so what is the strategy really going forward from here for
05:482026 what range what is the back of the envelope calculation that you're making with gold prices
05:53and what is the strategy really well uh um manisha to be very open uh the it is a very
06:01plain vanilla
06:02strategy but i mean you know to not uh i mean which we never do that we we do not
06:07speculate on this
06:08on the commodity at all and uh you know uh play safe i mean uh you know buy on dips
06:15and and uh
06:16uh whatever we whatever we use use the proper derivative products which is which will properly
06:23hedge your commodity and then uh you know uh since all the geopolitical tensions and all these things
06:29being around the globe it is uh as a retailer i would uh i would uh be rather uh you
06:37know i i would
06:38want to keep the business sustained and and for that the major uh thing which i would like to
06:43take care of is the the proper hedging of the commodity which the company is definitely doing
06:50with the kind of volatile move that we've seen in case of gold how are you looking at uh consumer
06:55buying patterns really coming across because we're looking at etf buying very strongly physical bullion
07:01buying is good is that what malabar is also looking at more bullion than jewelry and also the digital
07:06gold there are just so many ways suddenly and the financialization of gold how is that impacting you
07:11as an industry i would say which this is a very good uh phase you know i mean there are
07:17various
07:18avenues to people to buy gold you know uh buying gold uh shows the trust towards the yellow metal
07:24whether it be jewelry whether it is an etf whether it is a digital gold but you know people are
07:30are
07:31finding it very positive as far as gold is concerned so as we as retailer also we have been uh
07:39seeing
07:39this uh changes from uh you know i would say that you know as i mentioned the investors coming in
07:45for uh
07:46for for the for the medallions and for the coins but as the wedding seasons comes in and the jewelers
07:52are
07:52also uh keen in buying their part of the jewelry which they have to purchase so i would say this
07:58this is a
07:59very good phase for the gold and the trust has increased i would say there is an incremental
08:05increase in trust uh towards gold fair point that mr narayanan thank you so much for joining in so
08:11clearly highest volatility as mr narayanan says in last 20 to 30 years is what we've seen in gold
08:16jewelry buying of course will happen as the wedding season begins but otherwise investment buying in
08:21gold is something that we're looking at through the year with that we'll slip into a short break up next
08:25we get you a very special conversation with ragnar ud cco of bhp stay tuned for that chat
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