The National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange will hold a special one-hour Muhurat trading session on Sunday, November 8, to mark Diwali and the start of the new Hindu accounting year, Samvat 2083. The exchanges will open despite it being a regular weekly holiday, continuing a tradition that investors regard as highly auspicious.
According to the exchanges’ schedule, the session will begin with a block deal window from 1:50 pm to 2:05 pm, followed by a pre-open session from 2:05 pm to 2:20 pm. Regular trading will then run for one hour from 2:20 pm, with the session closing in the afternoon. Investors traditionally use the hour to make symbolic purchases, seeking the blessings of Goddess Lakshmi, the deity associated with wealth and prosperity, ahead of the evening’s celebrations.
Muhurat trading is one of the oldest rituals of Dalal Street, observed every year on Diwali. For generations of traders, the session has been less about the volume of trades and more about beginning the new Samvat on an auspicious note, with many families placing their first buy orders of the year during the hour.
This year’s session comes at a buoyant moment for Indian markets. The BSE Sensex closed the pre-Diwali week at 81,028 after rising about 8.8 per cent in the week, its highest level since late February, while the NSE Nifty crossed 25,000. Foreign portfolio investors turned net buyers of around $4.1 billion in Indian equities in November after months of heavy selling, and the rupee strengthened below 94 to the dollar for the first time since April.
Market experts expect the mood in the Muhurat session to reflect that optimism, though they caution that the one-hour window is traditionally thin on volumes and should not be read as a signal for the week ahead. The real test, they say, will come on Monday, when regular trading resumes and investors digest the festive week’s gains.
The exchanges’ holiday calendar shows that the market will be closed on Tuesday, November 10, for Diwali-Balipratipada, and again on November 24 for Guru Nanak Jayanti. Regular trading will resume on Monday, November 9.
For retail investors, brokers say the Muhurat session is a good time to review portfolios and begin the new year with a plan, rather than chase the market on sentiment alone. Many broking firms run special offers and research notes around the session, and several publish their top picks for Samvat 2083, spanning sectors from banking and infrastructure to consumption and technology.
The tradition of Muhurat trading dates back to a time when trading communities opened new account books on Diwali, and it has survived every change in market structure, from open outcry to fully electronic trading. On Sunday afternoon, as diyas are lit in homes across the country, Dalal Street will light up its screens for an hour, marking the start of another year in the markets.
