The problem was with the particular stock HDIL.NS I was trying to retrieve. Opening up a terminal and trying some of the commands listed in the GNUcash CPAN wiki here showed that my installation is fine. For example in terminal to find amazon share price using yahoo works great
$ gnc-fq-dump yahoo AMZN Finance::Quote fields Gnucash uses: symbol: AMZN <=== required date: 05/19/2014 <=== required currency: USD <=== required last: 296.755 <=\ nav: <=== one of these price: 296.755 <=/ timezone: <=== optional Which is all OK. But the same for HDIL.NS and it can't find it (at least using yahoo)
$ gnc-fq-dump yahoo HDIL.NS Finance::Quote fields Gnucash uses: symbol: HDIL.NS <=== required date: ** missing ** <=== required currency: ** missing ** <=== required last: 0.00 <=\ nav: <=== one of these price: <=/ timezone: <=== optional ** This stock quote cannot be used by gnucash!! Using an alternative to yahoo may resolve the issue the command gnc-fq-check shows alternatives to yahoo (I haven't bothered to check and find one)
$ gnc-fq-check ("1.31" "cse" "india" "vwd" "yahoo_nz" "ukfunds" "australia" "amfiindia" "usfedbonds" "bitcoin_gbp" "canada" "yahoo" "bitcoin_aud" "adig" "bux" "bitcoin_eur" "aiahk" "mtgox_sek" "bsero" "mtgox_hkd" "bitcoin_pln" "yahoo_australia" "unionfunds" "lerevenu" "asia" "tsx" "sixfunds" "indiamutual" "bse" "bitcoin_nzd" "hungary" "mtgox_gbp" "known_currencies" "mtgox_chf" "tnetuk" "fidelity_direct" "goldmoney" "tdwaterhouse" "trustnet" "mtgox_thb" "ftportfolios_direct" "cominvest" "morningstar" "ftportfolios" "mtgox_usd" "ind" "tdefunds" "bitcoin_rub" "bitcoin_nok" "mstaruk" "hu" "za" "bitcoin_usd" "mtgox_eur" "fundlibrary" "stockhousecanada_fund" "mtgox_pln" "yahoo_europe" "mtgox_sgd" "platinum" "mtgox_nok" "bitcoin_hkd" "maninv" "tsp" "financecanada" "usa" "troweprice" "france" "nasdaq" "bmonesbittburns" "bitcoin_thb" "mtgox_cny" "yahoo_asia" "mtgox_cad" "troweprice_direct" "tiaacref" "seb_funds" "bitcoin_jpy" "bitcoin_cny" "mtgox_aud" "ftfunds" "yahoo_brasil" "greece" "fidelity" "mtgox_nzd" "fetch_live_currencies" "romania" "dwsfunds" "finland" "hex" "brasil" "asegr" "deka" "nyse" "canadamutual" "asx" "mtgox_jpy" "mtgox_rub" "yahoo_json" "finanzpartner" "za_unittrusts" "fool" "citywire" "bitcoin_sek" "bitcoin_sgd" "uk_unit_trusts" "dutch" "sixshares" "nzx" "bitcoin_cad" "bitcoin_dkk" "aex" "nz" "bitcoin_chf" "vanguard" "europe" "bourso" "morningstarjp" "mtgox_dkk")