Should you buy gold now that prices are near record highs?

Buying gold right now is not a yes or no question, it is a how much question. Twenty four carat gold in India is trading close to Rs 14,346 a gram, which works out to roughly Rs 1.43 lakh for 10 grams, as investors track the on again off again peace talks between the US and Iran. Every time tensions rise or a naval blockade gets threatened, gold gets a fresh bid because that is what gold is built to do. So the honest answer is this, gold deserves a place in your portfolio at almost any price, but that place should be small and planned, not a lump sum bet made out of fear or FOMO.

Look at what has been happening around gold this year. Banking stocks, usually the sturdy part of an Indian portfolio, are down 13.6 per cent over the last month, while the Metal index is up 22.8 per cent over the past year. That kind of divergence is exactly when investors run toward gold, because it does not care which sector is having a bad quarter. RBI’s own growth estimate puts India’s GDP near 7.8 per cent and the rupee is holding around 95.66 to the dollar, so this is not panic buying driven by a weak economy. It is a hedge against a messy world, priced in at current levels.

In practice, that means treating gold as 8 to 10 per cent of your overall portfolio, built up through small, regular purchases rather than one big top up after a price spike. If you already hold that much, there is no urgency to add more just because the headlines are loud this week. If you hold little or none, start small through a gold ETF or sovereign gold bond and add on dips, not on rallies. Gold’s job is to sit quietly and protect, not to be your next big trade.