In observance of Mahashivratri, both the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) will be closed on March 8, with a hiatus in trading for derivatives, equities, SLBs, and currency derivatives. While the commodity derivatives segment will remain closed for morning trading, it will reopen for the evening session.
Normal trading activities on both the NSE and BSE are set to resume on Monday, March 11, marking the end of the one-day hiatus.
On March 7, the stock market experienced a range-bound session, failing to build on opening gains. Despite reaching fresh all-time highs in the opening trade, the benchmark indices closed the day on a flat note. The BSE Sensex touched a record high of 74,245.17 but concluded only 33.40 points (0.05 percent) higher at 74,119.39. The Nifty50 index also hit a new high of 22,525.65, closing 19.50 points or 0.09 percent higher at 22,493.50.
Throughout the truncated week, both the BSE Sensex and Nifty recorded a 0.5 percent rise.
Top Nifty gainers included Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, Tata Consumer, Tata Motors, and JSW Steel, while losers encompassed M&M, BPCL, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, and ICICI Bank. Sector-wise, banking, oil and gas, auto, and realty ended in the red, while metals, capital goods, media, and FMCG showed gains ranging from 1 to 2.5 percent. The BSE MidCap index added 0.3 percent, and the SmallCap index rose by 0.7 percent.
Jatin Gedia, a technical research analyst at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas, commented on the market’s performance, stating, “The Nifty opened on a flat note and consolidated during the day. It closed marginally in the green up 19 points. On the daily charts, we can observe that the Nifty held on to the gains and consolidated before an extended weekend. The consolidation is a brief pause in the overall uptrend, and we expect the up-move to resume in the coming week.”
As markets observe Mahashivratri and investors take a brief break, the overall sentiment remains positive, with experts anticipating a continuation of the upward trend in the upcoming week.
