MUMBAI: Gold sales across India zoomed 14 per cent in value terms on April 27, this year's Akshaya Tritiya, compared to the auspicious day last year, the World Gold Council (WGC) announced here today.

Akshaya Tritiya is an auspicious day according to the Hindu calendar for buying long-term assets like gold and silver, including ornaments made of the same, diamonds and other precious stones and real estate. Displaying confidence in the yellow metal, consumers invested around IRs 7,280 crore worth of gold last Monday, said WGC-India managing director Ajay Mitra.

Last year, when Akshaya Tritiya was celebrated for two days (May 7-8), gold sales stood at Rs 6,359 crore. The 14 per cent increase this year is despite the high price of gold -- IRs 14,700 per 10 gram -- compared to IRs 11,800 per 10 gram last year.

However, the total volume of sales stood at 45 tonnes this year as against last year's 45.9 tonnes, the WGC said.

"Sales have been very positive and in value terms, the growth has been impressive despite the 25 per cent higher prices this year. Moreover, large and established players selling hallmarked jewellery have performed better than the rest of the market," Mitra pointed out.