Market ignores downgrade World’s biggest jewellery firm moves to recycled gold, silver

Market ignored Moody’s credit rating downgrade and surged for fifth consecutive session to highest level since March 11, 2020 on fresh assurance from the government, reiterating its commitment to continued reforms to strengthen the economy, as well as the triggers already in place with economy opening up and timely arrival of monsoon.

Despite fears of correction on Moody’s downgrade, the benchmark indices opened in the green on positive global cues with the Sensex opening 150 points up at 33,450.19 and briefly gave up the gains before continuing the rally for the fifth day.

“This is not the time to downgrade the rating of a country. In such time of an exceptional situation, the rating of a country doesn’t matter. It is time we bring the economy back to normal,” said

Deven Choksey, managing director, K. R. Choksey Shares & Securities.

The Sensex rallied as Prime Minister’s speech at CII annual session boosted sentiments and the index closed 522 points or 1.57 per cent up at 33,825 while Nifty 50 closed just below 10,000 level at 9979.10, up 1.56 per cent or 152.95 points led by rally in bank stocks.

Shrikant Chouhan, executive vice president, equity technical research at Kotak Securities said, “Tuesday's rally was based on domestic news flows especially, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing the annual session of CII gave confidence to corporates that completely changed the picture of the market. Bajaj twins, HDFC twins and a few other private banks closed higher.”

Pandora A/S, which makes more pieces of jewellery than any other company in the world, will stop relying on newly mined gold and silver and instead use only recycled precious metals.

The new policy, which takes effect in 2025, will help the Copenhagenbased company beef up its climate credentials and make it a more appealing target for investors eager to fill their portfolios with assets that meet environmental, social and governance goals.

Shares in Pandora jumped about 5 per cent when trading started in the Danish capital. A spokesman for Pandora said the change won't have any impact on costs.

CEO Alexander Lacik said the new approach won't drag down the quality of the jewellery produced. "Metals mined centuries ago are just as good as new," he said in a statement on Tuesday. Meanwhile, "the need for sustainable business practices is only becoming more important," he said.

Pandora says its shift to recycled precious metals will cut carbon emissions by two-thirds for silver and more than 99 per cent for gold. One of the key benefits to the environment is the considerable reduction in water use as a result of less mining, it said.

Annual emissions from the global gold market are in policy material equivalent to around 126 million tons of CO2, with more than a third of that coming directly from mining and smelting, according to the World Gold Council.

One of the industry's most significant emissions is cyanide, which can lead to groundwater contamination and other threats to the environment. Concerns over the risks associated with managing mines and their waste have also mounted following a fatal disaster at a Vale SA iron ore operation in Brazil, in which a dam collapsed.

Pandora says it currently uses 71 per cent recycled gold and silver in its production, with roughly 15 per cent of the world's silver coming from recycled sources. —Bloomberg