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Indian stock markets remained closed for trading on Thursday due to the municipal corporation elections in Maharashtra.
Trading was halted across both major stock exchanges, including the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), in view of the polling day. Market participants are informed that trading activities in the equity segment will resume on Friday, following the one-day closure. The holiday applies to all segments on the NSE and BSE for the day. Meanwhile, the commodity market operated on a limited schedule. Trading in commodities remained closed during the first half of the day and is scheduled to resume after 5 PM, allowing market participants to trade in the evening session. In a separate development, the initial public offering (IPO) market witnessed strong investor interest. The IPO of Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) saw bumper demand, with the issue being oversubscribed by 98.51 times. The strong response highlights robust participation across investor categories for the Coal India subsidiary. The retail investor segment was subscribed 37.92 times, reflecting healthy interest from small investors. The Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB) portion was oversubscribed by 170 times, while the Non-Institutional Investors (NII) category recorded the highest demand, with subscriptions reaching 203 times. The Bharat Coking Coal (BCCL) IPO is a book-build issue of Rs 1,071.11 crores and structured entirely as an Offer-for-Sale (OFS), with Coal India Limited offloading up to 46.57 crore equity shares. The heavy oversubscription of the BCCL IPO underscores strong investor appetite despite the one-day market closure, indicating sustained interest in primary market offerings. In the domestic markets on Wednesday, the Sensex and Nifty 50 extended losses for the second consecutive session. At close, the Sensex dropped 245 points, or 0.29 per cent, to end at 83,382.71, while the Nifty 50 fell 67 points, or 0.26 per cent, to settle at 25,665.60. Most sectoral indices ended lower; however, the Nifty Metal (2.70 per cent) and PSU Bank (2.13 per cent) posted solid gains. The market opened in the red, extending selling pressure from the previous trading session amid continued concerns over new 25 per cent US tariffs on countries engaged in trade with Iran. (ANI)
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