Where is the market headed?
News emerged on August 18th that Nasdaq global trading hours are extending to 23 hours a day, five days a week. Currently, Nasdaq operates from approximately 4:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and the exchange is introducing a new session running from 9:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m., five days a week. This structure leaves only a single one-hour market halt per day alongside weekend closures.
This major change raises an important question regarding whether the Indian stock market is headed toward a similar continuous trading setup in the future. While India is clearly not ready for such extended hours at present, the gradual shift of US markets toward near 24/7 trading prompts consideration of how long it will take before Indian exchanges move in that direction, perhaps starting with a slight extension of hours before expanding further.
This shift brings up the fundamental question of whether longer trading hours are truly necessary for every market. Nasdaq represents a distinct ecosystem where global investors trade across multiple international time zones, making a continuum of trading hours essential. In contrast, the Indian market remains predominantly local. Although overseas interest exists, it is not substantial enough to justify operating 23 hours a day.
Furthermore, under India’s current market timing of 9:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., spanning roughly six hours, the main volume of trading occurs within the first hour and the final hour. The middle four hours represent a lean trading period where reducing the session by an hour would likely make little operational difference.
Market observers frequently debate whether pushing for longer market hours is driven by investor demand or serves as a strategy by exchanges to encourage higher trading activity and generate greater transaction fees. An optimal trading window might actually be shorter than the current duration. Decades ago, prior to online trading, markets opened for just a couple of hours daily with manual pit calls. Although overall volume was smaller, trades were completed efficiently for the market size of that era.
Today, market expansion coincides with heavy automation, with roughly 50 percent of transactions on Indian exchanges executed by automated algorithms located in colocation server premises. As machines increasingly dominate trade volumes, operating for seven hours, twelve hours, or twenty-three hours makes little difference to automated systems.
Market Overview
A somewhat daunting chart formation is developing near the trendline drawn from the April bottom, which the market is rapidly approaching and could test within a couple of days. A breakdown below this support line could trigger significant downside pressure. For now, the market reflects roughly 12 to 13 sessions of flat movements, with the Nifty dropping half a percent.
Major Market indices
Broad market indices mirrored this sluggishness, as Bank Nifty fell 0.4 percent, mid-caps declined 0.38 percent, and Nifty Next 50 dropped 0.2 percent, leaving small caps as the lone positive performer with a minor gain of 0.19 percent.
Heat Maps
The Nifty heat map was overwhelmingly red, with only Mahindra, Axis Bank, and Grasim showing minor green gains. Indian IT stocks faced continuous selling pressure, including major names like TCS, Infosys, and Wipro, as the AI trade in the US market gained momentum, fueling a contra trade against IT services. Banking heavyweights like Kotak, SBI, and HDFC Bank were also heavily hit.
On the Nifty Next 50 heat map, gains were visible in select capital goods, Adani, pharma, and defense stocks. Conversely, previous gainers in steel, commodities, capital goods, PSU banks, and finance stocks faced sharp declines.
Top Gainers & Losers
Sectoral Overview
In sectoral movements, Nifty IT dropped 2 percent today, though it remains up 3.3 percent over the last month. Auto stocks performed best over the past month with an 8 percent gain. For the day, India Defense led as the top-gainer sector, up 1.29 percent, while Nifty Realty lost 1.42 percent, with most other sectors moving less than half a percent in either direction. Major IT drag came from Mphasis, LTI Mindtree, Persistent, Infosys, and Wipro, which formed a double top pattern.
Meanwhile, the defense sector stands out as the top outperformer relative to Nifty, continually reaching new highs. Historical data confirms that sectors and stocks hitting new highs possess a higher probability of continuing upward, whereas declining assets tend to drift lower. Specific defense gainers included Paras Defense up 10 percent, alongside Zentec, Dynamatic, Data Patterns, and Astra Microwave, which advanced between 3.5 and 6 percent.
Sector of the Day
Nifty IT Index
Nifty Defence Index
U.S. Market Update
In the US markets, the previous session closed in the red, with the S&P 500 down, the Dow Jones falling 0.5 percent, the Nasdaq flattish at minus 0.17 percent, and the Russell 0.3 percent lower. Tech hardware gainers included SanDisk, Teradyne, Applied Materials, Marvell, and Western Digital, surging 5 to 8 percent. Nasdaq top losers were service-oriented product companies like Thomson Reuters, Ross Stores, Autodesk, Adobe, and Workday, which dropped 3.5 to 4.5 percent—some of which feature in weekend investing US stock strategies without serving as recommendations.
The Nasdaq 100 heat map revealed sharp cuts in Meta and Microsoft, alongside smaller losses in Google, Amazon, Tesla, and Walmart. While mega-caps lost ground, SpaceX climbed 4.5 percent, and semiconductor names like Micron (MU) and ASML performed well. Indian IT services require the US AI narrative to cool down to regain footing, but the AI wave remains dominant, keeping US markets supported almost entirely by entities like Anthropic and OpenAI. Should the market conclude the AI story has peaked, a wider market correction could follow.
Tweet Of The Day
A notable tweet of the day highlighted Nike, which has fallen to its lowest stock price in 12 years. Investors who purchased Nike stock four to five years ago face drawdowns of nearly 80 percent, proving that iconic global consumer brands do not guarantee strong stock performance.
Inexperienced investors often assume well-known brands automatically make superior investments, yet Nike demonstrates that a great commercial brand can fail to deliver equity returns over a twelve-year horizon, leaving investors averaging down into multi-year lows. Brand popularity should guide product consumption rather than investment decisions.
