The holiday cheer hit a wall of profit-taking. For the first time since 2017—and only the second time in a decade—the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty closed in negative territory during the special one-hour Diwali Muhurat trading session on Sunday, ushering in AirNews calendar year Samvat 2083 with modest institutional distribution.
Dalal Street opened on an optimistic note. The 30-share BSE benchmark jumped nearly 300 points from Friday's close to touch an intraday peak of 81,442. But selling pressure in heavyweight counters erased the advance within minutes. The index dropped below the 81,000 threshold before settling 29 points lower at 80,999. The broader NSE Nifty mirrored the reversal, shedding 44 points to finish at 24,986.
Tradition dictated buying. Decades of market lore encourage market participants to place token buy orders during Muhurat trade and shun selling. Sunday broke the mold. The slip followed an aggressive seven-session winning streak that had added over 10% to the benchmarks, lifting both indices to multi-month peaks.
"Rallies of such magnitude rarely sustain their momentum indefinitely without a period of consolidation, and a single symbolic trading hour was unlikely to buck that pattern," said Ponmudi R, chief executive officer of Enrich Money, noting that the session reflected standard profit-booking after an exceptional run of gains.
Yet the headline declines told only half the tape. Mid-tier and smaller companies saw sustained retail and proprietary accumulation, fully decoupling from the large-cap drag. The BSE Midcap index gained 0.5%, while the BSE Smallcap index climbed 1.5%. As cash chased secondary names, total investor wealth listed on the BSE rose by approximately ₹2.6 lakh crore to an all-time peak of ₹506 lakh crore.
| Index / Metric | Close / Figure | Net Change | Session Performance |
|---|---|---|---|
| BSE Sensex | 80,999 | -29 pts | Slumped from high of 81,442 |
| NSE Nifty 50 | 24,986 | -44 pts | Negative close for first time since 2017 |
| BSE Midcap | — | — | Advanced 0.5% |
| BSE Smallcap | — | — | Advanced 1.5% |
| BSE Total Market Cap | ₹506 Lakh Crore | +₹2.6 Lakh Crore |
The evening session also marked expanding commodity architecture on Dalal Street. Ashishkumar Chauhan, managing director of the National Stock Exchange, confirmed the bourse launched trading in Electronic Gold Receipts (EGRs) on Friday to coincide with Dhanteras. Traders exchanged more than 1.8 lakh EGRs on day one. Chauhan stated that the exchange plans to replicate the framework with upcoming rollouts of electronic receipts for silver and platinum.
| Record all-time high |