MUMBAI: The 9 November Diwali Muhurat trading session marked a muted start to Samvat 2083, with the benchmark Sensex closing 0.04% lower. Over the past 30 years, the Sensex has ended the Muhurat trading session in the red just eight times, including Sunday’s decline. On the other 22 occasions, the index closed higher.
The Sensex fell 28.62 points, or 0.04%, to close at 80,999.40 on Sunday. The Nifty 50 declined 0.18% to 24,986.40.
The Nifty 50 has lost 1.1% since the previous Samvat year, reflecting a subdued year for equities.
On Friday, the last trading session of Samvat 2082, the Sensex advanced 2.2% to 81,028, while the Nifty rose 2% to close at 25,030.35.
Muhurat trading is a special stock market session held on Diwali to mark the beginning of a new Samvat year. The Vikram Samvat calendar dates back to 57 BCE and is traditionally associated with King Vikramaditya of Ujjain. The occasion is particularly significant in Gujarat and Rajasthan, where business communities traditionally close their old account books and open new ones at the start of Samvat.
The new Samvat year begins on 9 November. Trades placed during Sunday’s Muhurat session will be reflected in investors’ accounts on the next trading day, Monday (9 November), which coincides with the first day of the new year.
The special session began at 2:15pm on Sunday and continued until 3:30pm, giving investors an opportunity to make token investments on the auspicious occasion.
At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the session was formally inaugurated with the ringing of the exchange bell by its managing director and chief executive Ashish Kumar Chauhan, alongside actors and brokers.
The exchange’s main auditorium, which houses an idol of Lord Ganesha, also had an idol of Goddess Lakshmi installed for the occasion of Lakshmi Puja. More than 300 people gathered at the exchange for the event.
Participation in this year’s Muhurat trading session was higher than last year’s, with NSE recording equity cash market turnover of ₹23,374 crore, compared with ₹19,714 crore in the previous year’s session, according to exchange data.
What lies ahead for markets?
The biggest reason for a market recovery could be mean reversion, as markets have undergone both time and price correction over the past two-and-a-half years, delivering low returns despite earnings growing around 14% over the last two years, said Vaibhav Chugh, chief executive, Abakkus Mutual Fund.
“The gap between earnings growth and market returns could support a rebound,” said Chugh.
The broader economic trends also appear encouraging, experts said.
Kalpen Parekh, managing director and chief executive at DSP Mutual Fund, said, “We track trends in cement demand, power, automobiles and construction and all these segments are showing steady growth which would reflect in profit growth too.”
Pallavi Gandhi, a trader, said Indian markets had shown signs of recovery, but she was adopting a more cautious stance towards futures and options (F&O) trading in the new Samvat year.
“This Samvat year, I am expecting a little volatility in the coming few months. The return expectations for this year are not that high considering how the benchmarks indices Nifty 50 and Sensex 30 have behaved in the last one year,” Gandhi said.
