Mumbai | November 8, 2026 — The Sensex and Nifty ended the special Diwali Muhurat trading session lower on Sunday, giving back early gains as investors booked profits after a sharp rally in the previous week. It was the first time in nine years that both benchmark indices finished the traditional one-hour session in negative territory, according to The Federal and The Economic Times.
The BSE Sensex closed at 80,999.40, down 28.62 points or 0.04 per cent. The NSE Nifty 50 settled at 24,986.40, lower by 43.95 points or 0.18 per cent. The decline was modest in percentage terms, but it ended a run of positive Muhurat closes that had lasted since 2017 and left the Nifty below the 25,000 mark at the start of Samvat 2083.
The session began on a firmer note. The Sensex opened at 81,299.34 and the Nifty at 25,070.45, with both indices extending gains before reversing during the latter part of the trading window. The Sensex reached an intraday high of 81,442.11 and the Nifty touched 25,131.85. The retreat towards the close reflected profit-taking rather than a sudden broad-market sell-off: small-cap shares and several sectoral indices still finished higher.
The negative close stood out because the previous week had been unusually strong. Reuters reported that the benchmark indices had risen more than 10 per cent across the seven sessions leading up to Friday. The Economic Times put the Sensex’s weekly advance at 6,569 points and the Nifty’s gain at close to 9 per cent. The rally also added nearly ₹29 lakh crore to the combined market value of BSE-listed companies, according to the publication.
The special Muhurat session is traditionally held around Diwali as an auspicious opening to the new Hindu financial year. This year’s one-hour window marked the beginning of Samvat 2083. The session is followed by regular trading days under the normal exchange calendar; its cultural significance does not change the way investors assess company earnings, valuations, interest rates or economic risks.
The last time the benchmark indices ended a Muhurat session in the red was 2017, when the Sensex fell about 0.6 per cent, The Economic Times reported. The Federal also said Sunday’s losses ended a nine-year streak of positive Muhurat closes. The result is therefore notable as a break in a long-running seasonal pattern, but it should not be mistaken for a forecast of returns over the full Samvat year.
Investors had several reasons to take some money off the table after the preceding advance. A run of strong sessions can leave share prices vulnerable to short-term selling, particularly when a market is entering a holiday-thinned period. The one-hour Muhurat window also offers less time for prices to absorb new information than a full trading day. A late reversal in that short session can reflect positioning and order flow as much as a major change in the outlook for corporate India.
Foreign portfolio flows were one of the key supports for Indian equities in the previous week. Reuters reported that foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth ₹45,961 crore, or about $4.89 billion, over five sessions. That included their largest single-day buying session in India in roughly six years on Thursday. The renewed demand helped lift market sentiment after a period in which overseas flows had weighed on domestic shares.
Lower crude oil prices were another factor. India imports a large share of the oil it consumes, so a sustained fall in crude can reduce pressure on the import bill and ease some of the risks to inflation and the rupee. Market participants cited by Reuters said the decline in oil prices after the US midterm election results had improved sentiment across Asian markets, including India. The effect is not automatic: currency movements, global demand, domestic fuel pricing and the duration of any oil-price decline all influence how much relief reaches the economy.
Corporate earnings also contributed to the recent advance. Reuters cited better-than-expected September-quarter results as one of the factors reinforcing confidence. Earnings matter because a rising share price is more durable when it is supported by growth in profits and cash flow. A short-term rally driven mainly by flows or sentiment can reverse quickly if company results fail to justify higher valuations.
The Muhurat session itself showed that the market’s movement was not uniform. Seven of the 16 major sectoral indices advanced, according to Reuters. Small-cap shares rose around 1 per cent and mid-caps edged up 0.1 per cent. The Nifty Pharma index gained 1.7 per cent, while media shares also advanced, according to The Federal. The broader Nifty Smallcap 100 rose about 1 per cent, and the Federal reported positive market breadth, with more than 3,100 stocks advancing against fewer than 1,000 declining.
Divi’s Laboratories was among the notable gainers. Reuters reported a 7.5 per cent rise in the stock after the company posted a 64 per cent year-on-year increase in quarterly profit. The metal index gained 0.4 per cent, while Tata Steel advanced 2.1 per cent after reporting an 18 per cent rise in operating profit and receiving supportive brokerage commentary on its domestic business. The Federal also reported gains in Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Tata Steel, while SBI Life Insurance and InterGlobe Aviation were among the session’s decliners.
That sectoral contrast is important. The headline indices finished lower, but the performance of individual shares depended on company results and industry-specific developments. The session did not show that investors were withdrawing from every part of the market. Rather, it showed that buying remained selective after the previous week’s broad advance.
The nine-year Muhurat streak ending is a useful market statistic, not a trading signal on its own. The special session is short and comes at a time when many participants are trading for symbolic, portfolio or operational reasons. A negative close cannot establish that the broader bull run has ended, just as a positive Muhurat close in earlier years did not guarantee a profitable year for every investor.
For the coming sessions, investors will continue to assess whether foreign buying persists, whether crude prices remain supportive and whether the September-quarter earnings cycle delivers enough profit growth to sustain valuations. Movements in the rupee, interest-rate expectations and developments in global technology shares may also influence flows into Indian equities. The domestic market’s relatively limited exposure to some of the global technology selloff helped cushion the effect on Sunday, Reuters reported, but that does not insulate Indian stocks from changes in global risk appetite.
Market veterans offered a constructive longer-term view despite the subdued finish. Raamdeo Agrawal, chairman and co-founder of Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said the combination of relatively low valuations and strong earnings growth could create the conditions for substantial returns by the next Diwali. That was an outlook, not a guarantee, and it depends on earnings continuing to grow and valuations remaining reasonable.
The first trading session of Samvat 2083 therefore opened with a mixed message. The indices lost a small amount and ended a nine-year sequence of positive Muhurat closes, but the broader market remained more resilient and the preceding week had delivered strong gains. The immediate question is not whether one auspicious session was positive or negative; it is whether earnings, foreign flows and the macroeconomic conditions that supported the rally can continue to do so over the months ahead.
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