Ram Navami, April 17: Trading Closed On BSE, NSE On Wednesday; Is There Pre-Election Rally On April 18?

Trading in the stock market is closed on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, due to the celebration of Ram Navami across the country. The market will resume normal trading on April 18 and 19 before entering into their defaulted weekend holiday.

Ram Navmi is celebrated as the birth of Rama, one of the most popular and 7th incarnations of Vishnu in Hinduism.

On April 17th, trading is closed in equity, equity derivative, SLB, and currency derivatives segment. Also, settlement depositories like NSDL and CDSL are closed.

After Wednesday, the market will be open for the next two days. But will be closed on April 20th and 21st due to the defaulted weekend holiday.

The next trading session will be key for traders as sentiments will be driven owing to the onset of the Lok Sabha Election which will begin on April 19 and will continue till June 1, 2024.

What To Expect?

Dr V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, at Geojit Financial Services said, "The market has already discounted BJP/NDA victory in the elections. The pre-election rally started on December 4th 2023 when the Sensex rallied by 1384 points in response to the state election results which saw BJP retaining power in Madhya Pradesh and wrestling Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh from the opposition."

Vijayakumar added, "The rally continued since then when most surveys predicted a comfortable majority of the BJP/NDA in the general elections. In brief, BJP's return to power is already discounted by the market and, therefore, when the actual results are announced, likely, there won't be any major market response."

Going forward, Vijayakumar said, "Market movement will be influenced by the Budget proposals. It is quite likely that the Budget turns out to be "transformational" as the prime minister said recently. The new government will be in a position to continue with the infrastructure push of the last few years. Also, the high GDP growth of 7% and low inflation of around 4.5% expected in FY25 can provide the government with tax buoyancy to implement infrastructure spending with fiscal prudence. Importantly the RBI too can chip in by cutting rates. This scenario augurs well for the stock market."

Siddhartha Khemka, Head - of Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services added, "Back, home Indian equities will remain shut on Wednesday on the occasion of Ram Navami. Weak global cues and ₹11295crore selling by FIIs in the last two days hurt domestic markets. In the near term, we expect the market to remain volatile until the Iran-Israel tension eases. US Chair Powell's speech late today will hold importance with the ongoing uncertain environment."

To investors, Ajit Mishra - SVP, Research, Religare Broking said, "Weak global cues are largely weighing on the sentiment and this trend may continue, with intermediate pause/rebound. We reiterate our view to Nifty to find support around the 22,000-22,150 zone and are likely to face a hurdle around 22,350 first. Amid all, certain pockets are still showing noticeable resilience and participants should align their longs accordingly."

In the previous session, the Indian stock market concluded its session with a significant downturn, marking the third consecutive decline for the first time in three months. The key indices, Sensex and Nifty, experienced notable drops, with the Sensex plummeting by 456 points to 72,944, and the Nifty stumbling 125 points to 22,148. The Nifty Bank slipped 288 points to 47,485, while the Midcap Index saw a decline of 44 points, settling at 49,237.

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