Indian markets open higher in Diwali Muhurat Trading session

India's benchmark equity indices opened in positive territory during the Diwali Muhurat Trading session on 8 November 2026. The BSE Sensex was up about 0.25% and the Nifty 50 rose roughly 0.30%, while the Mid-cap Nifty gained around 0.35%. The Bank Nifty, after an initial rise, moved into negative territory.

Among the day's top gainers were Divi's Lab, Tata Steel, Vedanta Aluminium, CG Power, Sun Pharma and Tata Motors PV. Declining stocks included SBI Life, Tata Capital, IndiGo, DLF, BPCL and Infosys. Volume-heavy shares featured Safe Enterprises Retail, Hindusthan Insulators, Finolex Cables and others. Several stocks, such as ICICI Bank, Adani Ports and JSW Steel, reached new 52-week highs.

The session ran from 2:20 pm to 3:30 pm, with a periodic call auction from 2:25 pm to 3:20 pm and closing auction activities between 3:15 pm and 3:35 pm. Commodity trading on the Multi Commodity Exchange followed the same timetable.

Historical data from HDFC Sky shows that from 2006 to 2025 the Nifty 50 closed lower than the previous day on only five occasions, and the Sensex on four occasions, giving an 80% success rate for ending higher in Muhurat sessions over the past decade.

Sumeet Bagadia, Executive Director at Choice Broking, noted that “the broader bias remains positive, although some profit booking or consolidation may follow the sharp rally.” Ganesh Dongre, AVP – Equity Research at Anand Rathi, said “during Muhurat Trading sessions, buying takes more during the early session and profit-booking triggers at the end of the session. This means we can expect the key indices to open with an upside gap and end below their opening levels. However, chances are high for the Nifty 50 and Sensex to end higher as global market sentiment is supportive.”