MAM
Gold glitters less as base metals shine brighter
MUMBAI: Gold bulls blinked in October as the yellow metal slipped 0.5 per cent in rupee terms after touching record highs near Rs 1.21 lakh, while silver sparkled briefly before easing 1 per cent. After months of glitter, profit-booking and a stronger dollar dimmed the bullion buzz.
Silver still outshone gold over the year, up 68.3 per cent versus gold’s 57.2 per cent. A supply squeeze and soaring ETF premiums kept silver in the spotlight, even as China curbed retail gold access and cut VAT exemptions from 13 per cent to 6 per cent.
Base metals stole the show. Copper broke above Rs 1,000, riding renewed trade optimism and mine disruptions that trimmed global inventories by nearly half. LME copper stocks fell 50 per cent, while refined production rose only 4 per cent against a 6 per cent surge in demand.
Zinc surged 4.5% as smelter shutdowns in Japan, Italy, and the US shrank supply. LME zinc stocks plunged to a two-year low of 38,000 tonnes, pushing the market into tight backwardation unseen since 1980.
Aluminium climbed 5 per cent, buoyed by easing US-China tensions and shrinking warehouse stocks, which are down 14 per cent this year. With global demand expected to soar nearly 40 per cent by 2030, supply strains are set to linger.
Energy markets flickered between hope and hesitation. Crude oil slipped 2.6 per cent on weaker demand despite geopolitical flare-ups, while natural gas gained 3.1 per cent as winter loomed and AI-driven power demand lifted consumption forecasts.
Central banks held steady, with the RBI keeping rates at 5.5 per cent and trimming inflation forecasts to 3.1 per cent. The Fed paused its balance-sheet runoff after two rate cuts this year, as the US shutdown stretched past 30 days.
From bullion dips to base metal breaks, the month painted a picture of cooling glitters and glowing grit, proof that in commodities, it’s never all gold that glitters.
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
