Indian equity markets shut on account of Muharram

Mumbai: National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India and BSE Ltd (earlier known as Bombay Stock Exchange) remained closed on Thursday on account of Muharram.

Wholesale commodity markets including metal and bullion were also shut. There was no trading activity in foreign exchange and commodity futures markets either. A day earlier, the BSE S&P Sensex closed 163 points or 0.29 per cent lower at 55,629 while the Nifty 50 was down by 46 points or 0.28 per cent to 16,569.

Meanwhile, Asian shares fell after minutes from the US central bank's last meeting showed the increasing prospect of reduced monetary stimulus this year.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.63 per cent. Hong Kong was off 0.45 per cent while Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.37 per cent.