‘Exchanges shut for a municipal election…’: Nithin Kamath says long way to go before global investors take India seriously

Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath asked why would global investors take India seriously when the Indian stock exchanges are closed over local municipal elections. He said there is a lack of appreciation for second-order effects.

“Indian stock exchanges are closed today for Mumbai's municipal elections. The fact that our exchanges, which have international linkages, are shut down for a local municipal election shows poor planning and a serious lack of appreciation for second-order effects,”  said Kamath.

He argued that the holiday exists because no one who matters actually has any incentive to oppose the market holiday. “It also tells you how far we have to go before global investors take us seriously,” he said.

Both National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and BSE initially classified January 15 as a settlement holiday and added that trading would continue as usual. The exchanges later issued revised circulars to confirm there would be no trading of stocks on Thursday. 

January 15 was listed as a trading holiday for the equity segment, debt segment and as well as the F&O segment on account of Municipal Corporation Elections in Maharashtra.  Trading in the equity segment, equity derivatives, commodity derivatives and electronic gold receipts were also shut, as well as the currency markets.

With this, the stock exchanges would be shut for a total of 16 days in 2026, which do not include weekends. The next market holiday is on January 26 on the occasion of Republic Day.