MUMBAI, Aug. 23 -- Anyone who walks into a jewellery showroom in Hyderabad, Bangalore or Pune this morning will be quoted a number that was set on Friday afternoon and has not moved since. The gold rate today is Rs.16,309 a gram for 24 carat and Rs.14,950 for 22 carat, unchanged from Saturday and unchanged from Friday's gold rate, which closed the week at the same figure.

India's bullion exchanges do not trade on Sunday. Neither does the international spot market. What every rate page in the country publishes this morning is Friday's closing price with today's date printed above it, and the zero in the change column is not a statement about demand. It is a statement about the calendar.

That matters more this weekend than it usually woul...