Stock market holiday: BSE, NSE to remain shut today for Lok Sabha polling

Market Shut Today

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) will remain closed on today, May 20, on account of the fifth phase of voting for the General Elections (Lok Sabha). Trading in derivatives, equities, SLBs, and currency derivatives, as well as in interest rate derivatives will remain shut for the day.

The commodity derivatives segment will remain closed in the morning session - from 9am to 5pm, while the evening session will remain open from 5pm to 11.55pm.

Trading on both the NSE and the BSE will resume on Tuesday, May 21.

On May 18, in the special trading session, the domestic markets extended in the green for the third straight session with the Sensex and Nifty closing with 0.1 percent gains. Broader markets, meanwhile, outperformed benchmark indices.

At close, the Sensex was up 88.91 points or 0.12 percent at 74,005, and the Nifty was up 35.90 points or 0.16 percent at 22,502.

Top performers

Among sectors, Nifty Media index was the top performer led by gains in Zee Entertainment after the company reported a profit of Rs 13 crore in the January-March quarter (Q4FY24). Following this, Nifty Energy and Nifty Infrastructure also clocked slim gains of up to 0.3 percent each on May 18.

"The Nifty remains within the channel, closing above 22,500 for the first time in several days. However, a small bodied candle on the daily chart suggests very little about the future direction of the price. Additionally, heavy writing is visible in both Call and Put at the 22,500 strike, indicating a sense of inflection. Therefore, traders need to be watchful in the initial hour to confirm any directional move," said Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst, LKP Securities

"Support is visible at 22,400. On the higher end, a sustained move can take the index towards 22,600 and higher in the short term," he added.

On Friday, the Indian rupee ended 17 paise higher at 83.33 per dollar versus Thursday's close of 83.50.

"The rupee traded positively, driven by the Indian capital market's positive reaction to favorable voting counts and expectations of the current government continuing its run," said Jateen Trivedi, VP Research Analyst - Commodity and Currency, LKP Securities

"Domestic Institutional Investors (DII) inflows have contributed to the rupee's stability, and the RBI's strict zero-speculation norms have further checked any potential decline. In the coming sessions, the rupee is expected to trade in a positive range between 83.10 and 83.55," he added.