Diwali, being celebrated today, is one of only two days in a year—the other being Holi—when the crew of a news daily in India does not have an edition to dispatch for overnight printing and delivery the next morning. It’s a holiday. But stock exchanges in Mumbai are open for “muhurat” trading, an hour’s session of buying and selling shares to ring in a new financial year by the traditional Vikram Samvat calendar. Traders, brokers, dealers and other market participants gather around their terminals for this auspicious activity, and do the best they can to spread their festive cheer to a certain Mr Sensex. A sensitive fellow for the most part, as one would expect of a public figure who gets characterized as “average”, he bears the genes of 30 different entities that often swing in opposite directions.