Stock Market Holidays in March: Traders to enjoy 3 long weekends in March. Check dates

Following a no-holiday month of February, March brings welcome respite for investors and traders, offering three holidays, all of which will lead to extended weekends.

However, before that, they have to contend with March 2, which is not a holiday despite being a Saturday. Exchanges have decided to conduct a live trading session this Saturday to assess the disaster management systems, in case of any untoward incidents.

Apart from the eight regular holidays due to weekends, stock markets will be closed for three festival occasions in March.

The first one will be due to Mahashivaratri (Friday), which will be celebrated on March 8. This festival holiday is also followed by a Saturday and Sunday, both of which are trading holidays.

The last week of March will be among the shortest trading weeks this calendar year with only three working days. Earlier in January, the third week of the month had just three trading days due to the Ram Mandir Inauguration and Republic Day.

On March 25, which is a Monday, markets will be shut for Holi. This market holiday is preceded by a Saturday and Sunday, giving investors three days off. The fourth long weekend of March will be on account of Good Friday, celebrated on March 29 (Friday).
Also Read: Stock market is open tomorrow. Timings, trading strategy, do’s and don’ts for special session

Markets have a total of 14 holidays in the calendar year 2024, one less than the current year 2023. In 2023, markets were closed for 15 annual holidays.

The markets will be shut for Mahashivaratri (March 8), Holi (March 25), Good Friday (March 2029), Ramzan Id (April 11), Ram Navami (April 17), Maharashtra Day (May 1), Bakri Id (June 17), Muharram (July 17), Independence Day (August 15), Mahatma Gandhi (October 2), Diwali (November 1), Gurunanak Jayanti (November 15) and Christmas (December 25) this year.

A special Muhurat trading will be held on November 01 for Diwali. The exchanges may alter any of the above holidays, for which a separate circular will be issued in advance.

Equity markets started the new month on a high, boosted by higher-than-expected domestic growth numbers. Benchmarks Nifty and Sensex hit fresh record highs on Friday as analysts saw extraordinary bullish sentiment from domestic investors in the derivatives segment.

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