Bank Holidays 2020: Next bank holiday will be on Christmas.
Domestic equity, debt, forex and bullion markets along with banks and other central government-run institutions were shut today in Delhi on account of Guru Nanak Jayanti. Today was the second bank holiday for markets this month, after being shut on November 16 for Diwali. There are 18 bank holidays in calendar year 2020, of which 17 have been utilized thus far. The first bank holiday of the current calendar year was observed on Republic Day i.e. January 26. Some other bank holidays were on Holi, Rama Navami, Good Friday, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha and Gandhi Jayanti. The next bank holiday and the last one for 2020 will be observed on Christmas, December 25.
In Friday's session, the S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes ended on a flat note as investors awaited official release of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data for second quarter of the current financial year due later on Friday. The benchmarks for most part of the day traded in a range-bound manner. The Sensex moved in a range of 412 points and Nifty touched an intraday high of 13,035.30 and low of 12,914.30. Gains in HDFC, HDFC Bank, Asian Paints and Bajaj Finance were offset with losses in Reliance Industries, Infosys, TCS, Axis Bank and HCL Technologies.
The Sensex ended 110 points or 0.25 per cent lower at 44,150 and Nifty 50 index declined 18 points or 0.14 per cent to settle at 12,969 on Friday.
India's gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 7.5 per cent in the July-September period, as the economy rebounded from a record slump of 23.9 per cent in the previous quarter due to slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Friday's data confirms the economy's first technical recession - which is two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction - since 1996, when the country began quarterly records. The GDP reading for the second quarter of current financial year is much better than economists' forecasts of 8.8 per cent in a poll by news agency Reuters.
World shares paused to assess a record-busting month on Monday as the prospect of a vaccine-driven economic recovery next year and yet more free money from central banks eclipsed immediate concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
Helping sentiment was a survey showing factory activity in China handily beat forecasts in November, and the country's central bank surprised with a helping of cheap loans. That left blue chips up 1.3 per cent on the day and 7.4 per cent for the month.
(With inputs from Reuters)
