Muhurat Trading Returns: Buying on Diwali Earns What Any Other Day Does
The Muhurat session is a good tradition and a poor timing signal. Eighteen years of Nifty data show that the day you buy matters far less than the fact that you do.
Figures checked · How we calculate
10.3%the Nifty's median return in the year after Diwali, 2007 to 2025
Start on any trading day in the same eighteen years and the median one-year return is 10.1%. The share of years that ended higher is the same too: 78% after Diwali, 78% after any day. The auspicious hour has earned what an ordinary Tuesday earns.
This year's Muhurat session is on Sunday, 8 November 2026, for one hour in the evening. NSE and BSE announce the exact time a few weeks before.
Eighteen Samvat years: two big years, four falls, and a lot of 10%
The Hindu financial year, Samvat, starts on Diwali. Here is every Samvat year since 2007, measured from the last Nifty close before each Diwali to the last close before the next one.
| Samvat year | Nifty at the start | Nifty a year later | Return |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2064 (2007–08) | 5,699 | 2,524 | −55.7% |
| 2065 (2008–09) | 2,524 | 5,142 | +103.7% |
| 2066 (2009–10) | 5,142 | 6,282 | +22.2% |
| 2067 (2010–11) | 6,282 | 5,192 | −17.4% |
| 2068 (2011–12) | 5,192 | 5,684 | +9.5% |
| 2069 (2012–13) | 5,684 | 6,307 | +11.0% |
| 2070 (2013–14) | 6,307 | 7,996 | +26.8% |
| 2071 (2014–15) | 7,996 | 7,783 | −2.7% |
| 2072 (2015–16) | 7,783 | 8,638 | +11.0% |
| 2073 (2016–17) | 8,638 | 10,211 | +18.2% |
| 2074 (2017–18) | 10,211 | 10,530 | +3.1% |
| 2075 (2018–19) | 10,530 | 11,584 | +10.0% |
| 2076 (2019–20) | 11,584 | 12,720 | +9.8% |
| 2077 (2020–21) | 12,720 | 17,829 | +40.2% |
| 2078 (2021–22) | 17,829 | 17,576 | −1.4% |
| 2079 (2022–23) | 17,576 | 19,425 | +10.5% |
| 2080 (2023–24) | 19,425 | 24,205 | +24.6% |
| 2081 (2024–25) | 24,205 | 25,843 | +6.8% |
| 2082 (2025–26), so far | 25,843 | 23,141 | −10.5% |
The best and worst years sit next to each other. Anyone who bought on Diwali 2007 lost more than half their money in twelve months, and anyone who bought on Diwali 2008, the week of the best Muhurat session on record, doubled it. Same festival, same ritual, opposite results. What differed was the price.
Across the eighteen complete years the Nifty grew 8.8% a year, from 5,699 to 25,843. Those are price-index figures. Dividends add about 1.3 percentage points a year on top, going by NSE's own figures for the last five years.
Which day you buy moves the result by about 5%. Buying at all triples it
Put ₹1 lakh into the Nifty every year for eighteen years, from 2008 to 2025, a total of ₹18 lakh. Then move the purchase date: the same number of days before or after Diwali each year, for every day from six months before to six months after. That gives 365 versions of the same plan.
| ₹1 lakh a year, 2008 to 2025 | Worth on 25 September 2026 |
|---|---|
| Bought on the luckiest day of the year | ₹53.4 lakh |
| Bought the day before Diwali | ₹52.0 lakh |
| The middle of the 365 | ₹50.9 lakh |
| Bought on the unluckiest day of the year | ₹48.7 lakh |
| Not invested at all | ₹18.0 lakh |
Diwali ranked 37th of 365: a little lucky, well inside the range. The gap between the best and worst day of the year was ₹4.7 lakh. The gap between buying on any of them and not buying was more than ₹30 lakh.
Nobody could have picked the luckiest day in advance. Its position moved from year to year, and the best fixed date over these eighteen years was an unremarkable day in May.
Use Diwali for what it is good at: remembering
A festival you never miss is a useful reminder, even if it is a useless signal. Two habits fit it well:
- Step up your SIP every Diwali. Raising it by 10% a year matters more than which fund you pick. The SIP planning guide shows what that step-up is worth over twenty years.
- Check your allocation once a year. If shares have run far ahead of your plan, or fallen behind it, the rebalancing tool tells you how much to move.
Buying a token share in the Muhurat session is fine as a tradition. Just size it as one: an amount you would be happy to see fall 10% by next Diwali, because in Samvat 2082 it did.
Frequently asked questions
When is Muhurat trading in 2026? On Sunday, 8 November 2026, the day of Lakshmi Puja. NSE and BSE hold a one-hour evening session and announce the exact time a few weeks before. Trades settle normally, like any other day's.
Does the market always go up on Muhurat day? Usually, and by very little. The session has closed higher every year from 2018 to 2025, typically by less than 1%. It is one hour long and follows a holiday mood, not a change in anything a company earns.
Is Samvat a better year to measure returns by than April to March? No. Any twelve-month window gives the same long-run answer. Samvat years are simply the ones investors talk about at Diwali, which is why this page uses them.
Should I start investing on Diwali? Start when you have the money and a plan. If that is Diwali, good. Across eighteen years, the choice of day moved the result by a few percent either way, and no day was reliably better than the others in advance.
Where do these figures come from? Daily Nifty 50 closing prices from 2007 to 25 September 2026, which match NSE's published index returns. Each Samvat year starts from the last close before Diwali, because the Muhurat session itself does not appear in every year's data. Session results for 2008 and 2025 are from news reports of those sessions.