Indian stock markets, forex markets will be closed on 29 and 30 March 2018 (Thursday and Friday) respectively on the account of Mahavir Jayanti and Good Friday. India’s two of the leading bourses National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange will be closed for trading and settlement on both the days. Along with the equity markets, the interbank foreign exchange market will be shut for trading and settlement. In the holiday-shortened week, Sensex advanced 1.14% to close 32,968.68 while Nifty surged 1.16% to end at 10,113.7. During the same period under review, the Indian rupee lost as much as 17 paise against the United States dollar. The rupee shed as much as 17 paise to 65.18 apiece US dollar at the interbank foreign exchange market in last three days.

RBI’s Special Window for Clearing and Settlements

  1. In order to enable accounting of all the government dealings, the Reserve Bank of India has decided to open a special window for clearing and settlement on Saturday, 31 March 2018, last day of the financial year 2017-2018. “With a view to facilitate accounting of all the government transactions for the current financial year (2017-18) by March 31, 2018, it has been decided to conduct Special Clearing at all clearing houses across the country on March 31, 2018,” RBI said in a statement.
  2. In addition, there will be a special clearing exclusively for Government transactions (receipts and payments) with return clearing on the same day.
  3. “It is mandatory for all banks to participate in the special clearing operations on the above-specified date. All member banks of the Clearing Houses are required to keep their inward clearing processing infrastructure open during the Special Clearing hours and maintain sufficient balance in their clearing settlement account to meet settlement obligations arising out of the Special Clearing, RBI said further.

RBI’s taxpayers’ relief

“With a view to providing greater convenience to taxpayers, it has been decided that RBI Offices and all designated branches of agency banks conducting government banking will keep their counters open up to 8.00 p.m. on March 31, 2018, electronic transactions can be done till the midnight of that day,” RBI said in a statement.

RTGS and NEFT operational on 31 March 2018

On 31 March 2018, the RBI has made necessary arrangements for special clearing operations across the country to assist government receipts and payments, and, moreover, the facility of electronic money transfers such as NEFT and RTGS will be operational on 31 March 2018 up until 8 pm.

Nation-wide bank holiday on 2 April 2018

“As far as April 2, 2018 is concerned, since it has been declared as a holiday to enable the banks to close their yearly accounts, although RBI offices will work on that day, centralised payment systems such as the RTGS and NEFT will not be operational on that day,” RBI said.

Also Read | Top 5 blue-chip gainers and losers in FY18

Indian stock markets on Wednesday

Indian equity markets ended in the negative region on Wednesday breaking the two consecutive days of surge with Sensex slipping below 33,000-mark and Nifty closing near 10,100-level following the early expiry of March derivatives series and the pessimism over US-China trade war. The S&P BSE Sensex lost 205.71 points or 0.62% to finish the day at 32,968.68 whereas NSE Nifty slid 62.85 points or 0.62% to conclude at 10,121.3 on Wednesday. A slump in heavyweight shares of companies such as Reliance Industries, Infosys, ICICI Bank, ITC, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India and Tata Steel steered the key equity indices into losses. Yesterday, 28 March 2018, was the last day of trading in the financial year 2017-2018.