Indian equity markets are closed today, Friday, March 14, in observance of Holi, the vibrant festival of colors celebrated across the nation. The holiday, which marks the arrival of spring, has led to a pause in trading activity on the domestic stock exchanges.

The short trading week will give the market participants some extra time to strategise the trading when the market resumes on Monday 17. The trading activities in both the equity markets will remain close. effective on all the market segments including derivatives, securities lending an borrowing (SLB), equity, currency trading and electronic gold recipt (EGP) as per the notifiction by National Stock Exchange (NSE) and BSE. On Thursday, the stock markets ended on a negative note with Nifty standing at 22,397.20, declining 73.30 points or 0.33 per cent.

At the end of the trading, BSE Sensex also followed the same trend of Nifty 50 and closed at 73,828.91, over 200 points or 0.27 per cent. The major gainers at the NSE were Bharat Electronics, SBI, ICICI Bank, Cipla, NTPC while the losers were Shriram Finance, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, IndusInd Bank, Hindalco Industries.On BSE, the Midcap and smallcap indices declined 0.5 per cent each.The sectors such as auto, IT, metal, media, realty traded in red, down 0.5-1 per cent eact while PSU Bank index witnbessed an upward moment of 0.5 per cent.

Thoughout the week, the market sentiment remained mixed as investors reacted to global and domestic economic cues. The US inflation data (CPI) which came lower than the expected provided a small upside to the US markets, influencing some other developing countries. It also supported the US stock market which was down three per cent.n the domestic front, Indian inflation eased due to lower food prices, and the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) exceeded estimates.

As the time progresses, investors will closely watch global developments and domestic economic indicators to gauge market direction, as per the market analysts.