Secunderabad Dhanteras: Old Gold Exchange in the Twin Cities

The busiest counter in a twin-city jewellery store this Dhanteras may not be the display counter at all. It may be the exchange counter. A festive-season study of how Indian cities search, talk and spend has put a striking number on Hyderabad, the market Secunderabad shares: old gold is estimated to fund 50 to 60 percent of jewellery sales. More than half the new gold leaving the shops, in other words, is being paid for with gold that was already sitting in family lockers. The study, The State of Festive India, Decoded by Langoor and Quilt.AI, also found gold dominating Hyderabad’s festive search interest, with budget-stretching behind almost all of it, and buyers shifting to smaller purchases, coins and lightweight jewellery, keeping the Dhanteras ritual intact while keeping the bill survivable. These are the study’s estimates, and we present them as such.

Secunderabad will recognise the pattern in General Bazaar and along Mahankali Street, where families have bought from the same jewellers for generations. Local offers point the same way: at least one Hyderabad jeweller is advertising 100 percent old gold exchange as a headline offer at its festive exhibition running into Dhanteras week. When exchange is half the business, the terms of that exchange matter as much as the design you pick.

Buyer takeaway: If old gold is funding your Dhanteras purchase, get it weighed and valued in writing against the day’s per gram rate before you choose the new piece, and compare the deduction on melting and wastage across two shops, because that is where twin-city bills quietly diverge. Today’s twin-city rate is on our Secunderabad page.

Source: LS Digital study, reported by MediaBrief, 28 Oct 2026; local listing: Sri Krishna Jewellers festive exhibition, 30 Oct to 7 Nov 2026