Dhanteras, the festival which is celebrated two days before the grand celebration of Diwali, is known for the custom of purchasing new and precious things, especially ornaments and jewelries.

The day is considered as one of the busiest days for business community because of the rush in the market. This year, however, the market was mostly subdued barring few sectors that witnessed good trading, e.g. automobile.

Lake City Honda and its local sub-dealers sold 300 two-wheelers today, informed owner, Varun Murdia. A very satisfied Varun informed that the sales were largely on account of sales from Activa, Dream Yuga and Dream Neo.

Royal Motors of Udaipur claimed to have sold nearly 600 two-wheelers in last seven days. “Since initiating the exchange offer, we have sold 550-600 two wheelers, mostly Passion Pro and Maestro.” said Vikram Soni, Sales Manager.

Sales in four-wheeler automobile market was however very disappointing. Kumud Kachchhawa, owner, Chandra Toyota informed that they booked around 30-40 cars today. “Considering various offers from financing companies and car dealers, we were expecting bookings of around120-150 cars”, said Kumud.

Jewelry market also had to settle for a subdued Dhanteras. Sarafa Market President, Inder Singh Mehta, informed that the total estimated sale is around Rs10 Crores. This includes both Gold and Silver ornaments. He considered this sale as fairly average given the recent fall in Gold prices.

Ganesh Daglia, a senior businessman dealing in silver utensils and coins, informed that the total sale in silver market was around Rs 1-2 Crores. This, he said, is very low as compared to the expectations given the drop in silver prices.

“The market is not bad but not even very great.” said Arvind Doshi, owner of Anmol Jewelers.

Electronics market received mixed response across dealers. Girish Pahuja, owner, Liberty Marketing, put the electronic good sales around Rs 50-60 Lakhs and felt that the sales was fairly decent. Certain other dealers on the other hand were not too excited about the sales.

An LG Electronics store at Town Hall termed the sale as decent, but not great. Saleem Mohammad, Sales Manager said that the sale of washing machines and LED TVs were considerably more than other products. Mohammad blamed no bonuses and delay in salary as the reason behind a slightly tepid market.

Trade calculations and statistics aside, Dhanteras was celebrated with a lot of devotion and fanfare across the city.