Nifty, Sensex Record Minor Rises in Recent Muhurat Trades Ahead of New Year

NEW DELHI, November 8 – The Indian equity market will observe a special one‑hour Muḥūrat trading window on Diwali, symbolising the launch of the new Hindu financial calendar. The BSE and NSE have set the interval from 2:20 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. for this ceremonial trade.

Data from the previous ten Muḥūrat sessions indicate that eight ended with the headline indexes posting positive returns. This repetition of modest gains has become a hallmark of the festive trading period.

For the Nifty, the first two sessions were negative – a 0.14 % dip in 2016 and a 0.63 % slide in 2017. The index then turned upward, registering 0.7 % in 2018, 0.37 % in 2019, 0.47 % in 2020, 0.5 % in 2021, a strong 1 % surge in 2022, followed by 0.5 % (2023), 0.4 % (2024) and a modest 0.1 % gain in the 2025 session.

The Sensex followed a similar trajectory. After modest falls of 0.04 % (2016) and 0.59 % (2017), it climbed 0.7 % in 2018, 0.49 % in 2019, 0.45 % in 2020, 0.5 % in 2021, 0.87 % in 2022, 0.54 % in 2023, 0.42 % in 2024 and roughly 0.07 % in the latest 2025 trade.

In the 2025 Muḥūrat session, the Sensex settled at 84,426, up 63 points or about 0.07 %. The Nifty closed at 25,868, gaining 25 points, which translates to roughly a 0.1 % rise. Both indices briefly peaked at their 52‑week highs early in the session before surrendering most of that uplift.

Market participants view the Diwali Muḥūrat window as an opportunity to capture incremental upside, especially given the consistency of positive outcomes across the past decade.