Jewellery stocks end nearly 3% down

Trimming most of their initial losses, jewellery stocks that reversed early gains ended up to 3 per cent lower as the interim Budget today made no recommendation for bringing down the import duty on gold.
Shares of PC Jeweller closed 2.66 per cent down after falling 11.24 per cent in intra-day on the BSE.
Titan Company fell by 1.23 per cent, while Shree Ganesh Jewellery House was down 0.91 per cent and Gitanjali Gems went down by 0.61 per cent.
Jewellery stocks rallied in morning trade on anticipation of a cut in import duty, but reversed gains after no such mention was made in the Budget for the next financial year, 2014-15.

Both the government and the Reserve Bank had taken steps to bring down gold imports, one of the major causes for the widening of the CAD in 2012-13.
The government had increased customs duty on gold thrice in 2013 to 10 per cent and the RBI had imposed a series of curbs on inward shipments of the yellow metal.