India’s gold reserves top $100 billion for first time as global prices soar

India’s gold stash has now crossed $100 billion, for the first time ever, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s latest weekly reserves data released on Friday. The jump came in the week ending October 10, when the central bank’s total holdings of gold shot up by $3.595 billion, bringing the full value to $102.365 billion.

But here’s the twist: RBI didn’t do much buying at all. That spike came almost entirely from the metal’s insane global rally, while the country’s overall foreign reserves actually fell by $2.18 billion, settling at $697.784 billion.

With gold surging like it’s on rocket fuel, the metal now makes up 14.7% of India’s total reserves, the highest percentage since 1996–97, traders said on Friday. That’s a big deal for a country that’s been gradually hoarding gold over the past decade, pushing the share from under 7% to nearly 15%. But this year’s rise wasn’t about how much India bought; it was all about price.

RBI slows purchases while price does the heavy lifting

India barely touched the buy button in 2025. The RBI added gold in just four out of the first nine months of the year, based on World Gold Council records. That’s a sharp slowdown compared to 2024, when buying happened almost every month.

From January through September this year, India bought only 4 metric tons, while it had picked up 50 tons during the same stretch in 2024.

Kavita Chacko, head of India research at the World Gold Council, said the rising gold share is “largely driven by valuation gains from the rising gold price.” It’s not about stacking more; it’s also about the price going nuts.

And nuts it has gone. Gold futures (GC=F) dropped more than 1% on Friday, settling near $4,250 an ounce, but that was after touching an intraday high above $4,380 earlier in the session. Even with that dip, the week still ended as the metal’s best weekly gain since 2020.

Wall Street and fund managers move as miners bleed

The gold craze didn’t just stop at central banks. This week, Bank of America’s Fund Managers Survey showed that gold is now the most crowded trade of October, beating even the “long Magnificent Seven” tech trade. Yet when fund managers were asked about their allocations, 39% had zero exposure, 19% were at 2%, and 16% said they had 4% exposure to the metal. The split positions have traders and funds on edge.

On Friday morning, Bank of America analysts doubled down on their position, repeating a “long gold” recommendation and predicting the metal could peak at $6,000 an ounce by mid-2026. Goldman Sachs lifted its end-of-2025 target to $4,900 per ounce, up from $4,300, and JPMorgan expects the metal to reach $6,000 by 2029.

But not everyone’s smiling. Gold miners, which had been riding the rally hard, saw a serious reversal. The NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index took a 6.4% dive on Friday, the biggest drop since May. Newmont Corp. tanked by 7.4%, Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. by 7.2%, and Barrick Mining Corp. lost 7%.

And all three of those had already logged over 100% gains this year, while gold itself climbed just over 60%.

Meanwhile, the pullback has traders at a crossroads. Jay Kaeppel, senior research analyst at SentimenTrader, said in a Friday note, “Traders who have been holding a long position in SPDR Gold Trust ETF are now faced with a decision — take profits or let it ride?”

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