Buying Stocks to Win the Gods' Favor Will Not Save Modi Reforms
- Sensex rises 0.5% at special Muhurat session on festival day
- Modi's election defeat diminishes his power to reform economy
A customer looks at lanterns at a stall during the festival of Dhanteras in the Crawford market area of Mumbai, India, on Monday, Nov. 9, 2015.
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
In India, if you pray for shares to rise, they probably do.
Once a year, for the Hindu festival of Diwali, the country’s two main equity markets -- BSE Ltd. and National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. -- throw open their doors for a special one-hour session where traders buy shares to win the favor of the goddess of wealth. In 12 of the last 14 years, she has answered their prayers. BSE’s benchmark Sensex has climbed an average of 0.7 percent in each Muhurat trading session. That tradition remained intact on Wednesday, with the gauge rising 0.5 percent.