Stock market holidays 2019

The exchanges closed for 21 holidays in 2019. Four fell on a Saturday or Sunday (Republic Day on 26 Jan, Ram Navami on 13 Apr, Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Jayanti on 14 Apr and Diwali Laxmi Pujan on 27 Oct), so 17 cost a weekday. A weekend holiday costs no trading day, because the markets are shut on weekends anyway.

Apr 2019 and Oct 2019 had five closed days each, the most of any month. Mar 2019, Aug 2019 and Sep 2019 had two, Jan, May, Jun, Nov and Dec 2019 had one, and Feb and Jul 2019 had none. The count includes weekend holidays.

Two of the 2019 holidays were not festivals. The markets closed on 29 Apr for the parliamentary elections, the polling day for Mumbai, and on 21 Oct for the Maharashtra assembly elections. Exchanges announce such closures from the election calendar, so they vary by year.

Muhurat trading is a short evening session held on Diwali Laxmi Pujan as an auspicious start to the new Samvat year, the Hindu calendar year that begins at Diwali. In 2019 Diwali Laxmi Pujan fell on Sunday 27 Oct, so the exchanges opened for this one session on a weekend. The regular market was shut the next day, on 28 Oct, for Diwali Balipratipada.

Settlement is when shares and money actually change hands after a trade. In 2019 Indian shares settled two working days after the trade, called T+2. A holiday is not a working day, so a trade made before a closure settled after it. In Apr 2019, 17 Apr and 19 Apr were both holidays, leaving 18 Apr as the only trading day between 16 Apr and 22 Apr.