Gold fell 7.9% and silver 16.4% in March 2026

The worst month on record, for both

Gold fell 7.87% in rupee terms in March 2026, from ₹1,53,042 per 10 grams on 27 February to ₹1,40,990 on 31 March. Silver fell 16.45%, from ₹2,71,183 to ₹2,26,581 per kg.

For both metals it was the worst month in our series, which begins in September 2021 and now has 54 complete months. Gold's previous worst was September 2023 (−4.08%); silver's was August 2022 (−11.75%). The month also ended a nine-month run of gains for gold and a ten-month run for silver.

All prices here are the international price (the COMEX futures close) converted to rupees at each day's dollar rate, as on our gold and silver price page. Gold is quoted for pure metal, and both are before import duty and GST.

Inside the month

Gold traded on 22 sessions. Its high of the month came on the first, ₹1,55,035 on 2 March, and its low on 24 March, ₹1,31,885: a fall of 14.9% in three weeks.

• The worst day was 19 March, when gold fell 5.04%, from ₹1,45,252 to ₹1,37,927. There were also falls of 3.43% on 26 March and 3.02% on 3 March.
• The best day was 25 March, a rise of 4.59%. Gold then added 2.23% on 31 March to finish 6.9% above its low.

Silver's month ran from a high of ₹2,61,264 on 10 March to a low of ₹2,06,023 on 26 March. It lost 7.35% on 19 March and 6.09% on 26 March, and gained 5.73% on the last day.

Did the metals fall with equities?

The Nifty 50 fell 11.31% in March, from 25,178.65 on 27 February to 22,331.40 on 30 March, its last session of the month. Gold and silver did not cushion that fall; they joined it.

Day by day, the pattern was mixed rather than lockstep. Matched session by session to the Nifty 50's 19 trading days in March, gold fell on 14: on 8 of the 11 days the index fell, and on 6 of the 8 days it rose. Silver fell on 7 of the index's 11 down days.

The sharpest shared day was 19 March. The Nifty 50 fell 3.26%, from 23,777.80 to 23,002.15; gold fell 5.04% and silver 7.35%. The COMEX close comes several hours after the NSE close, so same-day comparisons like this are approximate.

The quarter still ended higher

March took back a lot, but not all of January and February. Over the first quarter of 2026:

Over the quarter as a whole, then, the metals did what many investors hold them for: they rose while equities fell. Inside March itself, they didn't.

At the end of March gold stood 10.4% below its highest close (₹1,57,381 on 29 January) and silver 33.1% below its own (₹3,38,545 on 26 January). On 1 April gold rose 1.97% to ₹1,43,763, and silver closed at ₹2,28,025.

The rupee softened the blow

The dollar rose 3.68% against the rupee in March, from about ₹91.01 to ₹94.36. A weaker rupee lifts the rupee price of anything priced in dollars, so the fall in dollar terms was larger: about 11.1% for gold and 19.4% for silver.

Over the quarter the dollar rose 5.11%, from about ₹89.77. That means roughly 5 points of gold's 12.93% quarterly gain in rupees came from the currency; in dollars gold rose about 7.4%.

The gold-silver ratio rose from 56.43 to 62.23 over the month, as silver fell about twice as far as gold.

What this does not tell you

One month is not a verdict on gold as a hedge. March is a single month in which gold fell alongside equities; the same quarter shows the opposite. Neither is a rule.

The series is short. "Worst month on record" means since September 2021.

Spot is not what you pay. Retail prices add import duty, 3% GST and making charges, and gold ETFs and funds track the domestic price and charge an expense ratio.

Where to go from here

The gold and silver price page has today's rates and both five-year charts. For February's rally, see gold and silver in February 2026; for what equities did, the March 2026 market recap.

On why investors hold metals beside equities, and why that doesn't work every month, read debt and gold as shock absorbers and asset allocation and rebalancing.