Dubai's jewellers see better value in 18K push

January 2, 2013

HL

Dubai, Jan 2: Seeking to put the sparkle back into the gold trade after a less than stellar showing in the second half of 2012, Dubai’s jewellers are set to put their marketing muscle behind 18-carat jewellery for the first time. They believe such a move would help considerably improve offtake of jewellery among Western and Chinese shoppers, particularly tourists during the peak holiday season and during DSF.

It also signals a not so subtle shift on the part of Dubai’s jewellery trade which has until now focussed exclusively on 22-carat jewellery and demand from Indian and Pakistani residents and those on visit.

“18K is the most popular caratage in jewellery internationally, especially in Europe; hence it will be appealing to tourists from there,” said Abdul Salam KP, group executive director at Malabar Gold and Diamonds. “It obviously has the advantage of a lower price compared to 22K and offers more design variety as it is acceptable internationally and easier to make in complicated designs.”

On pricing, there is a fairly significant gap between the carats. Yesterday, a gram of 22K was going for Dh180.94 ($49.26) in Dubai, while its 18K counterpart had a less sheen in value terms at Dh147.99 ($40.29) a gram. Moreover, the making charges on 18K are said to be considerably lower.

Apart from the Western tourist, jewellery chains are keeping an equally keen look out for Chinese shoppers. They were quite conspicuous jewellery buyers during DSF 2011, but less so last year. Retailers are hoping for a marked improvement in the upcoming one and expect the 18K push will win them over.

“The Chinese tourist prefer 18K gold jewellery as well as 24K gold bars,” said John Paul Joy Alukkas, executive director, Joyalukkas Group. “The preference for the former is because they can use it more as a day to day rather than special occasion jewellery. The gold bars are with an investment perspective.”

Dubai’s gold trade definitely needs a volume boost and if 18K can provide that, retailers will not mind much. Demand had taken a dent last year after the steady upturn in gold prices through 2011 stalled and went through a bit of volatility.

But a key factor for the subdued demand had to do with events in India, where customs authorities dusted off a long dormant 1967 gold import duty and started applying it vigorously since the second quarter of 2012. This effectively meant that the price differential buying gold jewellery in Dubai as opposed to doing the same in India came down significantly. It also meant that any Indian expat here taking gold back to India would be hit with steep duties. As a case in point, a woman passenger wearing a gold chain weighing 40-gram would have to shell out Rs4,100 as duty on arrival at an Indian airport.

“Implementation of the recent revision in customs duty for gold and the related hassles for passengers has affected the mindset of NRI passengers in a big way,” said Sunny Chittilappilly, chairman of Dubai Gold and Jewellery Group. “As a result gold buying in the Gulf reduced to an extent and demand for 22K Indian jewellery was affected during the high purchase season close to summer.”

Several depositions, both individual and at the industry level, have been made to the Indian authorities for a repeal or a relook at the 1967 provisions. Dubai’s jewellers believe something will come out of the collective action.

In the meantime, they hope the 18K push and DSF 2013 — in which 13 kilos of gold can be won daily - will cut them some slack.

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Agencies
February 6,2020

Researchers have found the rates of lung cancer are higher in young women than men.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, examined lung cancer rates in young adults in 40 countries across five continents and uncovered a trend of higher lung cancer rates in women compared with men in recent years.

The emerging trend was widespread, affecting countries across varied geographic locations and income levels.

The changes appeared to be driven by a rising rate of adenocarcinoma lung cancer among women, said the study researchers from University of Calgary in Canada.

Lung cancer rates have been higher among men than women because men started smoking in large numbers earlier and smoked at higher rates; however, recent studies have reported converging lung cancer incidence rates between sexes.

Among men, age specific lung cancer incidence rates generally decreased in all countries, while in women the rates varied across countries with the trends in most countries stable or declining, albeit at a slower pace compared to those in men.

For the findings, lung and bronchial cancer cases between 30-64 age group from 1993-2012 were extracted from cancer incidence in five continents.

The study found the higher emerging rates of lung cancer in young women compared to young men.

According to the researchers, future studies are needed to identify reasons for the elevated incidence of lung cancer among young women.

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Agencies
May 25,2020

Singapore, May 25: COVID-19 patients are no longer infectious after 11 days of getting sick even though some may still test positive, according to a new study by infectious disease experts in Singapore.

A positive test "does not equate to infectiousness or viable virus," a joint research paper by Singapore's National Centre for Infectious Diseases and the Academy of Medicine, Singapore said. The virus "could not be isolated or cultured after day 11 of illness."

The paper was based on a study of 73 patents in the city-state.

The latest findings may have implications on the country's patient discharge policy. The discharge criteria is currently based on negative test results rather than infectiousness.

Singapore's strategy on managing COVID-19 patients is guided by the latest local and international clinical scientific evidence, and the Ministry of Health will evaluate if the latest evidence can be incorporated into its patient clinical management plan, according to a report by the Straits Times.

So far, 13,882, or about 45% of the total 31,068 Covid-19 patients in Singapore have been discharged from hospitals and community facilities. Singapore reported 642 new Covid-19 cases as of noon on Saturday.

The government has been actively screening pre-school staff as it prepares to reopen pre-schools from June 2. On Friday, two pre-school employees tested positive for the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases among pre-school staff to seven, according to the Ministry of Health.

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Agencies
May 10,2020

Washington D.C., May 9: Do the middle age feel much stressful now, and seems to have changed over time, if compared to the life in the 90s? Well, this recent study indicates that it might be true.

The study has signalled to the fact that life may become more stressful majorly for middle-aged people than it was in the 1990s. The researchers reached this analysis even before the novel coronavirus started sweeping the globe.

A team of researchers led by Penn State found that across all ages, there was a slight increase in daily stress in the 2010s compared to the 1990s. But when researchers restricted the sample to people between the ages of 45 and 64, there was a sharp increase in daily stress.

"On average, people reported about 2 percent more stressors in the 2010s compared to people in the past," said David M. Almeida, professor of human development and family studies at Penn State.

"That's around an additional week of stress a year. But what really surprised us is that people at mid-life reported a lot more stressors, about 19 percent more stress in 2010 than in 1990. And that translates to 64 more days of stress a year."

Almeida said the findings were part of a larger project aiming to discover whether health during the middle of Americans' lives has been changing over time.

"Certainly, when you talk to people, they seem to think that daily life is more hectic and less certain these days," Almeida said.

For the study, the researchers collected data from 1,499 adults in 1995 and 782 different adults in 2012.

Almeida said the goal was to study two cohorts of people who were the same age at the time the data was collected but born in different decades. All study participants were interviewed daily for eight consecutive days.

During each daily interview, the researchers asked the participants about their stressful experiences throughout the previous 24 hours.

They asked questions related to arguments with family or friends or feeling overwhelmed at home or work, so and so. The participants were also asked how severe their stress was and whether those stressors were likely to impact other areas of their lives.

"We were able to estimate not only how frequently people experienced stress, but also what those stressors mean to them," Almeida said.

"For example, did this stress affect their finances or their plans for the future. And by having these two cohorts of people, we were able to compare daily stress processes in 1990 with daily stress processes in 2010," Almeida added.

After analyzing the data, the researchers found that participants reported significantly more daily stress and lower well-being in the 2010s compared to the 1990s.

Additionally, participants reported a 27 percent increase in the belief that stress would affect their finances and a 17 percent increase in the belief that stress would affect their future plans.

Almeida said he was surprised not that people were more stressed now than in the 90s, but at the age group that was mainly affected.

"We thought that with economic uncertainty, life might be more stressful for younger adults. But we didn't see that. We saw more stress for people at mid-life," Almeida said.

"And maybe that's because they have children who are facing an uncertain job market while also responsible for their own parents. So it's this generational squeeze that's making stress more prevalent for people at mid-life," he concluded.

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