The Indian stock markets have been shut on Thursday as Mumbai and other cities of Maharashtra went to the polls for municipal corporation elections, including the high-profile Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls. However, this hasn’t gone down well with Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath.

‘Poor planning, lack of appreciations’: Kamath slams market holiday

Nithin Kamath shared his thoughts on X about the closure and said that shutting down exchanges with global links for a local municipal election shows poor planning and little thought for knock-on effects.

“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,” he wrote on X.

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Further, quoting Charlie Munger, Kamath said, “Show me the incentive, and I will show you the outcome.”

Kamath pointed out that the public holiday stays because no one “who matters” has reason to fight it. He added that this kind of thing shows how much further India has to go before global investors truly take the country seriously.

BSE, NSE closed today

Both the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) stayed completely shut for trading in equity, derivatives, and other key segments. This holiday wasn’t on the original 2026 calendar but was added earlier this week after the Maharashtra government declared January 15 a public holiday under the Negotiable Instruments Act to help people vote smoothly.

Banks in the affected areas were also closed, which made normal market clearing and settlement impossible, so the exchanges decided to skip trading altogether.

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Commodity trading on MCX had a partial day: the morning session was off, but the evening session ran from 5 pm to 11:55 pm.

Traders and investors now look forward to normal action resuming on Friday. This one-day break adds to the 16 total trading holidays planned for 2026, not counting weekends.