KOTA BHARU, Oct 27 — Shoppers have been streaming into Kelantan’s gold shops to snap up jewellery as prices sag to about RM503 a gramme yesterday, the New Straits Times reported today.

Many shops around Pasar Siti Khadijah in the Kelantan capital here were crowded with customers, with gold priced between RM503 and RM504 a gramme, according to the newspaper.

“Whenever prices drop, I take the opportunity to buy more for my collection,” Halima Osman, 45, a customer at one of the shops, told the newspaper.

She said the fall was sharper than she expected, as prices had earlier approached RM600 a gramme.

Halima bought a bracelet today, saying that she had been tracking the price slide for weeks and believed RM503 was the lowest so far.

“We buy when prices are low and sell when they rise to make a profit,” she added.

Gold is deeply rooted in Kelantan, where women have long treated it as both savings and business capital, with monthly sales in the state estimated at about 500kg, the New Straits Times reported previously.

Another shopper, Nur Ain Abdul Manaf, 30, left with a necklace and an anklet.

She said she had long treated gold jewellery as a form of savings and investment that could be sold if she needed cash later.

“While I was at the jewellery shop, everyone was there to buy, not sell,” she said.

Spot gold rose 0.3 per cent to US$4,007.57 (RM16,351) an ounce yesterday after hitting US$3,975 (RM16,218) when markets closed on Friday, its lowest level since July 20, according to Business Recorder.

Kelantan saw similar scenes in June, when The Star reported that the decline in the price of 916 gold prompted many people returning to Kota Bharu for the Hari Raya Puasa holiday to buy jewellery.

The gold-buying craze is also happening worldwide. 

Bargain hunters also packed Shenzhen’s Shuibei gold market after a dip in global prices, Business Times reported today while gold traded at a premium in India for the first time in more than three months as a price pullback boosted jewellery purchases, Reuters reported.