Mumbai, Dec 27 (IANS) Indian equities markets will be closed Monday on account of Moharram before starting this year’s last weekly trade.
The bourses will function only three days this week — Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Markets will be closed on the New Year, Jan 1 (Friday).

The year has seen the 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) appreciate more than 75 percent from the Jan 1, 2009 closing figure of 9,903.46 points.

It had closed Thursday at 17,360.61 points — a 19-month high for the key index. Markets were closed Friday on account of Christmas.

The broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), too, has gained a substantial 70.7 percent from the Jan 1 close of 3,033.45 points, having ended Dec 24 at 5,178.4 points.

The rise has also been helped by the continuous inflow of overseas funds, with foreign institutional investors looking at the Indian economy as more resilient than developed ones.

Till Dec 24, overseas investors had pumped in about $17.13 billion, fuelling the fantastic rise of Indian markets and making them among the top investor destinations among bourses globally.

Broader market indices, too, reflected the bullish sentiments and outperformed the leading indices.

The BSE midcap index, which was at 6,641.14 points at its weekly close Thursday, has risen a little over 100 percent from 3,319.10 points it ended at Jan 1, 2009.

The BSE smallcap index, has jumped 113.1 percent from 3,810.41 points Jan 1 to 8,120.71 points Dec 24.