Diwali 2026 Is Almost Here. What Usually Happens in the Muhurat Hour?

[Bhaumil Makwana-1775029101775]

Sachin Tendulkar had a small habit.

Whenever he got ready to bat, he put on his left pad first. Always the left, never the right.

Was it just a habit, or did he feel it brought him luck? Only he knows.

But he’s not alone. Lots of players wear the same shirt, sit in the same seat, or do the same small things before every match. If they score well once, they keep doing it. We all do this. Something good happens after a certain habit, and we start thinking the habit caused it. And we remember the times it worked much better than the times it didn’t.

The stock market has its own lucky habit: Muhurat trading.

Every Diwali, the market opens for one special hour. This year it’s on Sunday, 8 November, the day of Laxmi Pujan, and it marks the start of the new Hindu financial year, Samvat 2083. “Muhurat” simply means a lucky time. The BSE has followed this since 1957 and the NSE since 1992. Many people use this hour to make a small first purchase of the new year, usually a share they plan to keep for a long time.

So with Diwali coming up, we wanted to know: is this hour really lucky, or does it just feel that way?

Mostly good, to be honest

We checked the last 10 years of the Nifty 50. It ended higher in 8 of them. On a normal day, the market goes up only about 54% of the time, so 8 out of 10 is a nice score. On average, it rose about 0.31% in that hour.

But the joy doesn’t last

Here’s the funny part. In 9 out of 10 years, the market opened higher than the day before, by about 0.54% on average. But in 9 out of 10 years, it also ended the hour lower than where it started. So most of the gain came right at the beginning, and then it slowly slipped away.

Smaller companies had more fun

We also looked at midcap and smallcap shares for the last 7 years. Both opened higher every single time, and both ended the day above the previous close every single time. On average, midcaps rose about 0.63% and smallcaps about 1.05%.

So, is it luck?

A bit, maybe. Muhurat day has been kind to the market more often than not. So think of it like Tendulkar’s left pad: a nice habit to follow, but not a reason to make big money decisions.

History never repeats itself, but it often rhymes.