Sensex and Nifty End Slightly Lower in Diwali Muhurat Trading as Nifty Slips Below 25,000

Indian benchmark indices ended Sunday’s special Diwali Muhurat Trading session slightly lower after giving back an early advance, snapping a seven-session winning streak as Samvat 2083 began. The BSE Sensex declined 28.62 points, or 0.04%, to 80,999.40, and the Nifty 50 fell 43.95 points, or 0.18%, to 24,986.40, slipping back below 25,000, Moneycontrol and The Hindu Business Line reported on Nov. 8, 2026.

Hindu Business Line described the session as a one-hour Muhurat sitting and said the Nifty opened at 25,070 and touched an intraday high of 25,131.85. Moneycontrol said the Sensex had climbed nearly 400 points in early trade and that the Nifty crossed 25,100 before the gains faded. Despite the weaker close in the benchmarks, market breadth was positive. Moneycontrol counted 3,127 stocks advancing against 917 declining and 193 unchanged. Hindu Business Line, citing BSE figures, said 3,253 stocks advanced against 947 decliners, with 130 stocks hitting 52-week highs.

Sector leaders and laggards

Sector performance was mixed, with pharmaceutical and media stocks each rising more than 1%, Hindu Business Line said. Sun Pharma was the top Nifty gainer. Moneycontrol put the stock up 3.17% at 1,919 rupees; Hindu Business Line reported a gain of 2.96%. Both outlets said Tata Steel advanced 2.09% to 190.20 rupees and ONGC gained 1.31%. Moneycontrol added that Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles rose 1.13%. The weakest Nifty names, according to Hindu Business Line, were SBI Life, down 1.11%, IndiGo, down 1.07%, and Bharti Airtel, down 1.03%.

Sunday’s pullback followed a powerful week. On Friday, Nov. 6, the Sensex surged 2.17% to 81,028.02 and the Nifty jumped 2.01% to 25,030.35, Moneycontrol said, adding that both indices had closed at eight-month highs and that the Nifty had reclaimed 25,000 for the first time since Feb. 27. Hindu Business Line said the Nifty gained 8.58% in the week ended Nov. 6, its strongest weekly performance since February 2021, helped by softer crude oil prices, renewed foreign buying and a rotation of flows toward emerging markets after a sell-off in global technology stocks.

A cautious open to Samvat 2083

The Muhurat session marks the start of the new Hindu calendar year. Hindu Business Line said the Nifty has closed higher in eight of the last 10 Muhurat sessions from 2016 to 2025, with the strongest gain in that stretch a 0.88% rise in October 2022 and last year’s session up 0.10% to 25,868.60. Samvat 2082 was more difficult: the Nifty declined about 10.88%, foreign portfolio investors sold more than 3 lakh crore rupees of equities, and domestic mutual funds invested 5.37 lakh crore rupees, the newspaper said. Monthly systematic investment plan inflows reached a record 32,490 crore rupees in September 2026, and the Nifty’s trailing price-to-earnings ratio contracted from 22.72 times to 20.65 times.

Ponmudi R, chief executive of Enrich Money, told Hindu Business Line that Sunday’s session was “better viewed as healthy digestion rather than a shift in the underlying trend.” Ashishkumar Chauhan, managing director and chief executive of the National Stock Exchange, said at the Muhurat gathering that the exchange now serves “27 crore accounts and 13.7 crore unique customers.” He highlighted the launch of Electronic Gold Receipts, with more than 100,000 units traded on debut, and cautioned retail investors that “nobody should invest all their money or borrow to invest.”

Raamdeo Agrawal, chairman and co-founder of Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said the market has the potential to deliver stronger returns by next Diwali after two years of stagnation, citing valuations, earnings growth, lower crude oil prices and renewed foreign interest, comments carried by both outlets. Other market participants quoted by Moneycontrol offered mixed views on whether additional catalysts would be needed to sustain the recent rebound. Regular cash-market trading is scheduled to resume after the Diwali holiday. Sunday’s special session does not, by itself, establish the direction of the new Samvat year.

Sources: Moneycontrol, Nov. 8, 2026; The Hindu Business Line, Nov. 8, 2026.