MUMBAI—India’s financial engines, the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange, are hitting the brakes for a hefty 10 days in May 2025, a rare pause that’s got traders and investors scribbling new plans in their dog-eared notebooks. The exchanges, which keep the country’s economic pulse racing, will shutter their doors for a mix of national holidays and weekends, as confirmed by official calendars released earlier this year. This isn’t just a long weekend—it’s a full-on market siesta that demands attention from anyone with skin in the game.
The month kicks off with a holiday on May 1, Maharashtra Day, a nod to the state’s formation in 1960. Both NSE and BSE will stay closed, with no trading in equities, derivatives, or commodities. Maharashtra, home to Mumbai’s financial hub, takes this day seriously, and the exchanges follow suit. After that, the calendar flips to a rhythm of regular weekend closures—Saturdays and Sundays, as always, are non-trading days. That means May 3, 4, 10, and 11 are out of play, standard practice for the markets’ weekly breather.
The NSE and BSE, which together handle billions in daily trades, aren’t budging on these dates. Their holiday schedules, published on their websites and circulated to brokers, lay it out plain: no pre-open sessions, no block deals, no settlement activity. If you’re hoping to sneak in a trade, you’re out of luck—pending orders will just sit tight until the next business day. The Multi Commodity Exchange, or MCX, tags along for the May 1 holiday but might open for evening sessions, though details are still pending.
Zooming out, May’s 10-day closure isn’t an outlier. The exchanges have 14 holidays slated for 2025, peppered across months like Holi on March 14 and Diwali’s Muhurat Trading on October 21. April, for instance, saw three days off for Mahavir Jayanti, Ambedkar Jayanti, and Good Friday. But May’s tally stands out, bloated by those weekend days that stack up like bricks. Traders need to plan around these gaps, as market reopenings often spark volatility, with investors adjusting positions after global cues pile up.
For the uninitiated, NSE and BSE are the lifeblood of India’s markets, with the former ranking as the world’s 10th largest by market cap and the latter, Asia’s oldest, clocking in as the sixth globally. Their regular hours—9:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday—grind to a halt on these holidays, leaving brokers, analysts, and day traders to stew over charts or, maybe, catch a rare day off. Clearing and settlement operations, handled by entities like NSDL and CDSL, also take a hit, pushing share deliveries and payouts to the next working day.
No changes to the May schedule have been flagged by the exchanges, but they’ve got the power to tweak holidays with a circular if needed. For now, the lineup is locked: May 1, plus the weekends of May 3-4 and May 10-11, totaling 10 days of silence in the trading pits. Mark your calendars, because the markets won’t wait when they roar back to life.