India’s stock markets marked the start of the new Hindu accounting year on a sober note, with the benchmark indices closing the special Diwali Muhurat trading session in the red for the first time in nine years. The Sensex slipped 28.62 points to close at 80,999.40, while the Nifty 50 lost 43.95 points to end at 24,986.40 in the one-hour session on Sunday.
The session, held between 2:20 pm and 3:30 pm, began on a high note but faded as the hour wore on. The weak close snapped a seven-session winning streak for the markets, and it was the first time since 2017 that a Muhurat session had ended lower, a fact that took some of the shine off an otherwise festive afternoon on Dalal Street.
Muhurat trading is a decades-old tradition in which the exchanges hold a special one-hour session on Diwali to mark the beginning of Samvat, the new year in the Hindu calendar. Samvat 2083 began on Sunday, and traders traditionally buy a token quantity of shares during the session as an auspicious start to the year, believing it sets the tone for the months ahead.
Brokers said the muted close reflected a market that had run up strongly into the festival and was due a pause, rather than any deep worry about the economy. The indices had climbed for seven straight sessions before Diwali, and several market watchers had expected a quiet session with thin volumes, as many participants stay away from their desks on the festival day.
The exchanges will remain closed on Tuesday, November 10, for Diwali-Balipratipada, giving traders an extended break after the festival. Normal trading resumes on Wednesday, when attention will turn to the next big cues for the market, including the consumer inflation data due on Thursday.
For investors, the red close is unlikely to change the broader mood. The Indian market has been among the stronger performers this year, and the festive season typically brings a pickup in consumption that feeds through to corporate earnings in the December quarter. Fund managers say they will be watching how the festival demand holds up once the holidays end.
Still, the first red Muhurat close in nine years is a talking point on the Street, and it will be remembered the next time the festival session comes around. The tradition is that the Muhurat hour sets the tone for Samvat; whether this one proves to be a brief pause or the start of a longer correction will only be clear in the weeks ahead, when the market returns to full sessions and the festival glow gives way to hard numbers.
