Friday The 13th Unlucky? Indian Markets Don't Think So

Friday the 13th, a date associated with superstition and caution in popular culture, seems to hold no sway over the Indian stock market, as shown by a closer examination of the performance of major sectoral indices.

Contrary to the general belief that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day, data from the National Stock Exchange reveals that Indian sectors perform better on these Fridays compared to their average daily returns. Since its inception in 1990, the index has seen 55 such Fridays, a majority of which recorded positive returns for the index.

Nifty 50, the benchmark index of India's stock market, has posted an average return of 0.39% on Friday the 13th, a significant leap from its overall daily average of 0.07%. The benchmark of banking stocks, Nifty Bank, also outperformed with an average return of 0.46%, over its typical daily gain of 0.08%.

Almost every sector showed better-than-average performance on Fridays falling on the 13th of the month, with the sole exception of Nifty IT, which marginally underperformed.

Sectors like Auto and Financial Services also stood out, recording gains of 0.52% and 0.49% respectively, compared to their historical averages of 0.07% and 0.08%.

Even sectors which are often considered volatile due to global factors managed to outperform on such days.

Nifty Oil & Gas delivered a 0.45% return on these Fridays, against the daily average return of 0.06%, while Nifty Metals recorded a return of 0.42%, outpacing 0.04% returns delivered on any average day.

Nifty Pharma gained 0.33% on Friday the 13th versus its usual 0.05%, and Nifty FMCG, the benchmark index for a sector known for lower volatility, saw a modest increase of 0.19%, surpassing its regular 0.07%.

Nifty Realty and Nifty IT also showed positive, albeit less striking differences compared to their usual performances.