Gold rate today: 24K falls Rs 2,700 to Rs 457,536 a tola in afternoon revision

Updated Monday 21 September, 3:45pm. The All Pakistan Gems and Jewellers Sarafa Association revised 24 karat gold down to Rs 457,536 a tola, a fall of Rs 2,700 on the day. Per 10 grams the rate is Rs 392,263, down Rs 2,315. Silver is unchanged at Rs 7,100 a tola.

That is a much bigger move than the morning quote suggested. Gold opened Monday at Rs 460,136, down only Rs 100 from Friday's Rs 460,236, and the afternoon revision did the rest of the work.

The international leg

Bullion is at $4,350 an ounce, down $27. That is the number that sets direction here: the local rate is the ounce price converted at the day's dollar rate and adjusted by the association.

So the rupee matters as much as the metal. The dollar moved against you today as well, with our data hub reading the interbank rate at Rs 277.93 against Rs 277.25 on Sunday. A weaker rupee normally cushions a falling ounce price in local terms. It did not cushion much this time, which tells you the fall in dollar bullion was the larger force.

What Rs 457,536 a tola means in hand

A tola is 11.664 grams. At Monday's revised 24 karat rate:

• One tola: Rs 457,536
• Half tola: about Rs 228,768
• 10 grams: Rs 392,263
• One gram: about Rs 39,226

For jewellery the 22 karat figure is what to work from, because almost nothing sold as ornament in Pakistan is 24 karat. At the standard 22/24 ratio that is roughly Rs 419,400 a tola. A 22 karat set weighing 5 tolas is about Rs 2.10 million in metal before making charges, which typically run 8 to 15 per cent on top and are never part of the quoted rate.

Our gold converter does tola, gram and karat conversions, and the zakat calculator applies the 87.48 gram nisab if you are working out what you owe on holdings.

Why it fell

The same diplomacy that pulled the risk premium out of oil pulled some out of gold. Brent has now fallen for four straight sessions, its longest losing run in three months, as talks on restoring crude flows through Hormuz progressed. Gold and oil both carry a Middle East war premium at the moment, and it came out of both together.

That cuts both ways. UN General Assembly week is the test of whether the diplomacy holds. Iran's president is travelling to New York, and Iran's military has said it expects US strikes to resume. If that is how the week goes, the premium goes straight back in.

If you are buying

A Rs 2,700 move is 0.6 per cent. On a five-tola purchase that is about Rs 13,500, which is real money but smaller than the making charge spread between two shops on the same street. Get the karat stamped, get a weight slip, and compare the making charge as a percentage rather than the headline rate.

If you are selling, expect the buy-back to be quoted below the association rate. That gap, not the daily move, is where most of the cost of holding physical gold sits.