How to Read a Daily Rate Board Without Getting Lost

The daily rate is the most consulted number in Nepali retail and one of the least explained. It appears every morning, it is the same everywhere, and almost nobody is told where it comes from.

It is a published rate, not a shop's price

The figure you see is a trade rate for gold as metal, at a stated purity. It is a reference point that the whole market prices against, so that a customer in Birgunj and a customer in Pokhara are working from the same starting number on the same day.

It is not what you will pay for an ornament. Making charges, wastage and tax sit on top of it, and those are set by the shop, not by the board.

Why it moves overnight

Gold is a globally traded commodity, quoted in US dollars per troy ounce. Nepal imports effectively all of it. So the local rate is, in effect, three things multiplied together.

1. The international price, which trades while Nepal is asleep.
2. The exchange rate, since a dollar-priced good has to be paid for in rupees.
3. Duty and local costs, which change rarely but change sharply when they do.

Two of those three move every day, which is why the board does. The Nepali rupee is pegged to the Indian rupee, so the dollar exposure travels through that peg. A move in the dollar against the Indian rupee shows up on a Kathmandu rate board, even though neither of those currencies is ours.

Why there is no Saturday rate

Saturday is the weekly holiday. The market does not sit, so no rate is published, and the same is true of public holidays. A site or an app showing you a rate on a Saturday is showing you Friday's number, and it ought to say so.

This matters more than it sounds. During a long festival closure the last published rate can be several days old while the international price has moved a good distance. If you are transacting on the first day back, check the date on the number and not only the number.

Two rates, two grades

Most boards carry a higher figure and a slightly lower one, for the fine grade and the refined grade. They are different products. When someone quotes you the rate, it is fair to ask which of the two they mean, particularly if you are selling rather than buying.

Silver behaves differently

Silver sits on the same board and follows the same mechanics, but in percentage terms it moves far more sharply than gold. It carries a large industrial demand that gold does not, so it reacts to things that have nothing to do with jewellery at all. A silver buyer should expect a rougher ride.

What the rate cannot tell you

It cannot tell you whether today is a good day to buy. Nobody can, and anybody who says otherwise is selling something. What it can tell you is whether the price you are being asked for is anchored to a public number, and that is the question worth carrying to the counter.