Bitcoin has been on fire ever since Musk announced that Tesla had bought $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency, and that his electric-vehicle company would accept bitcoin from buyers.
Indian banks have started exploring opportunities in the space, including lending to crypto exchanges, and accepting bitcoins as collateral, among others.
Experts recommend buying gold as the fundamentals supporting a rally have not changed.
This was because of the closure of retail shops and factories after the nationwide lockdown was imposed to prevent spread of Covid-19, and a sharp increase in the metal's price.
Any shift in investor sentiment may result in speculators fleeing the gold market, driving its price down sharply, quickly. One significant risk for gold is a near-term reversal in the dollar, which recently fell to a two-year low.
After China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong earlier this month, the United States on July 14 withdrew the special status granted to Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada followed suit.
Those interested in investing in gold have shifted to instruments, such as sovereign gold bonds and gold ETFs. Many others are, in fact, selling gold or using it as collateral to generate short-term liquidity.
The all-time high price of silver is Rs 75,000 a kg, recorded in April 2011.
In most cases, however, retail consumers are paying higher prices in the absence of direct procurement from aggregator or farmers.
With the gradual opening up of shops, hotels, restaurants and catering services with limited number of participants, milk consumption has improved by 5-10 per cent from the lowest level.
Branded and packaged edible oils are currently selling at around 50 per cent premiums over their loose varieties. Hence, products using edible oils would be costlier going forward.
The government has sold SGBs worth Rs 1,990 crore in April and May alone.
Silver has been quoting at a premium in India since mid-March because of huge scarcity.
It plans to use it as collateral, along with forex reserves, to print currency.
Gold and silver became costlier in the country following the international price rise over the expectations of negative interest rates in the US, the rising trade tensions between the US and China and the weakening of the rupee.
People in the know said plans were afoot to begin the sale of all food grains through online, with a major quantity through auctions that would be later extended to other commodities.
The government of Maharashtra decided to shut operations at APMC Vashi mandi between May 11 and 17 after confirmed cases of Covid-19 surpassed 80 in the APMC and over 450 across Navi Mumbai, where the mandi is located.
Vashi APMC traders see supplies to Mumbai impacted over movement curbs. A number of trucks sent to Mumbai from the market has reduced from 600 per day in recent times to around 300.
Industry estimates over 30 tonnes of gold were sold on Akshaya Tritiya this time.
Normally, kharif sowing of vegetable seeds starts during the first week of May across the country. Farmers start preparing their fields to make them suitable for kharif sowing during the second fortnight of April. Now, however, faced with the lockdown, farmers are in a hurry to clear their fields of rabi crop and prepare for kharif planting. With a normal monsoon forecast this year, they are doing all they can to take advantage of pre-monsoon showers.
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