According to the 2026 holiday calendar published by the NSE for both NSE and BSE, the coming year will feature seven long weekends, where a market holiday falls on a Friday or Monday, creating three-day breaks. Notably, 2026 will have one additional trading holiday compared with the current year.
The official list of market holidays for NSE and BSE shows that exchanges will be closed on key national and religious observances that fall on weekdays throughout the year. These include Republic Day on January 26 (Monday), Holi on March 3 (Tuesday), Ram Navami on March 26 (Thursday), Mahavir Jayanti on March 31 (Tuesday), Good Friday on April 3 (Friday), Ambedkar Jayanti on April 14 (Tuesday), Maharashtra Day on May 1 (Friday), Bakri-Id on May 28 (Thursday), Moharram on June 26 (Friday), Ganesh Chaturthi on September 14 (Monday), Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti on October 2 (Friday), Dussehra on October 20 (Tuesday), Diwali-Balipratipada on November 10 (Tuesday), Guru Nanak Dev’s Prakash Gurpurab on November 24 (Tuesday), and Christmas on December 25 (Friday).
Weekends and holidays falling on Saturday or Sunday — such as Mahashivratri (February 15), Eid-ul-Fitr (March 21), and Independence Day (August 15) — will not affect trading. Interestingly, Diwali Laxmi Pujan falls on Sunday, November 8. The exchanges will conduct the traditional Muhurat Trading session even though markets remain closed for regular trading. The exact timings for the special one-hour session will be announced closer to the date.
For market participants, advance visibility into seven long weekends offers a practical way to align trading strategies and portfolio actions around periods of reduced liquidity and closures.
Looking beyond the calendar, global and domestic brokerages expect 2026 to be a recovery year for Indian equities after a volatile 2025. Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs have flagged the potential for markets to claw back lost ground as earnings stabilise and policy support strengthens.
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