NSE Year-End Holiday Watch: Markets Shut for Guru Nanak Jayanti (24 Nov) and Christmas (25 Dec) 2026

The National Stock Exchange has fixed the last two trading holidays of calendar 2026, and both land in the final six weeks of the year. Circular NSE/CMTR/71775 lists Tuesday, 24 November 2026 (Prakash Gurpurb Sri Guru Nanak Dev) and Friday, 25 December 2026 (Christmas) as the closing holidays for the Capital Market segment. With the Diwali-Balipratipada shutdown of 10 November 2026 already behind us, these are the only two full equity holidays left on the 2026 calendar, which makes the stretch from mid-November to year-end a planning window worth mapping out in advance.

For investors the holiday dates matter less for what happens on the day itself and more for the statutory and settlement deadlines that cluster around them. A 15 December advance-tax instalment that falls a week before a long Christmas weekend, or a belated return deadline of 31 December 2026 pressed up against the final holiday of the year, leaves little margin if you wait until the last working session. This watchlist maps the deadlines, the one confirmed policy event, and the questions readers are asking about the year-end schedule.

Statutory Deadlines

Three categories of income-tax deadline fall inside the 24 November to 25 December 2026 window, and none of them move because the exchange is shut. The Income-tax Department's compliance calendar at incometax.gov.in runs on its own statutory clock under the Income-tax Act, so a bank holiday or an NSE holiday does not extend a due date that lands on a working day.

The headline date is 15 December 2026, the third instalment of advance tax for financial year 2026-27. Under Section 211 of the Income-tax Act, a taxpayer must have paid at least 75 per cent of the estimated annual liability by this date, building on the 15 per cent due by 15 June and 45 per cent due by 15 September. Any shortfall from the 75 per cent mark attracts interest at 1 per cent a month under Section 234C. Salaried taxpayers whose employers deduct full tax at source are generally outside advance tax, but anyone with capital gains, rent, interest, or business income should run the numbers before the 15th. You can read the mechanics in our advance tax glossary entry.

The second date is 31 December 2026, the last day to file a belated or revised income-tax return for assessment year 2026-27 under Section 139(4) and Section 139(5). This deadline sits directly against the 25 December Christmas holiday, so the practical working time narrows to the days between the holiday and the 31st. A belated return filed by 31 December 2026 still carries a late fee of up to Rs 5,000 under Section 234F (Rs 1,000 where total income does not exceed Rs 5 lakh), and losses other than house-property loss cannot be carried forward on a belated filing. The official filing utility and status tracker are at incometax.gov.in.

The third recurring obligation is the monthly deposit of tax deducted at source. TDS and TCS collected during November 2026 must be deposited by 7 December 2026, and amounts deducted in December 2026 by 7 January 2027, under Rule 30 of the Income-tax Rules. Deductors who miss the 7 December date pay interest at 1.5 per cent a month under Section 201(1A). GST registrants on the monthly cycle continue to file GSTR-1 by the 11th and GSTR-3B by the 20th of the following month; these dates are unaffected by exchange holidays and are governed by the GST return calendar rather than the trading calendar.

A note on Form 15G and Form 15H: these self-declarations to avoid TDS on interest income are filed at the start of a financial year and remain valid for that year, so no fresh submission falls due in the November to December 2026 window. If you submitted them in April 2026 for FY 2026-27, they continue to apply; there is no year-end renewal in December.

Market Events

The one confirmed, calendar-fixed market event in the near term is the Reserve Bank of India Monetary Policy Committee review scheduled for 5 to 7 October 2026. Going into that meeting, the repo rate stands at 5.25 per cent, where the MPC held it unanimously on 5 August 2026, the fourth consecutive pause of 2026. The policy stance was described as neutral, with the committee citing the need for greater clarity on the inflation outlook. The decision and the accompanying statement will be published on rbi.org.in; readers can follow the mechanics of the benchmark in our repo rate glossary entry. We report the outcome of RBI meetings only once the official resolution is on the record, never as a forecast.

The two NSE holidays themselves are the defining market events of the year-end run. On Tuesday, 24 November 2026 and Friday, 25 December 2026, the Capital Market, Futures and Options, and SLB segments are closed, so no price discovery, no new orders, and no fresh settlements occur on those dates. The table below sets out the final stretch of the 2026 trading calendar for equity investors.

A practical consequence of the 25 December holiday falling on a Friday is the three-day gap that follows, with the exchange shut on Friday, 25 December and then over the weekend of 26 and 27 December 2026. Under the T+1 rolling settlement cycle that Indian equities have followed since 2023, a trade executed on the preceding working day settles on the next working day, so the holiday simply pushes settlement to the following open session. Investors who need funds to settle around a holiday cluster should confirm the exact settlement date with their broker rather than assume same-week credit. The same logic applies to the 24 November Tuesday holiday, which breaks the trading week into two shorter halves.

For long-term investors, a two-day holiday does not change the arithmetic of a disciplined plan. A monthly systematic investment plan debits on its mandate date regardless of whether a particular session is open, and units are allotted at the applicable net asset value on the next business day, as explained in our NAV glossary entry. If you are weighing a single large deployment instead, our lumpsum calculator and step-up SIP calculator let you model the outcome across the remaining weeks of 2026 without reference to any single trading day.

Earnings

No company results have been confirmed in our verified calendar for 24 November 2026 or 25 December 2026, and because both are full exchange holidays, no listed company would report numbers to the market on either date. Results are filed with the exchanges and disseminated during trading sessions, so a holiday effectively removes the day from the corporate-reporting schedule. We do not publish speculative earnings calendars; where a board meeting or results date is not on the official exchange record, we leave it off this watchlist.

The practical point for the year-end window is timing rather than specific names. The October to December 2026 quarter closes on 31 December 2026, which means the bulk of the third-quarter FY 2026-27 earnings season begins only in the second half of January 2027, after both of these holidays have passed. Companies notify their board-meeting and results dates to the exchanges under SEBI's listing disclosure framework, and those intimations appear on the exchange websites ahead of each result. Until a specific date is confirmed on that record, treat any earnings claim for the 24 November to 25 December 2026 window as unverified.

If you hold individual stocks across the holiday break, the sensible step is to check the exchange's corporate-announcements page for each company's board-meeting intimation before assuming any result will land in the year-end window. Nothing in the confirmed calendar places a result on either holiday.

FAQ

Is the NSE open on Guru Nanak Jayanti, 24 November 2026?

No. NSE circular NSE/CMTR/71775 lists Tuesday, 24 November 2026 (Prakash Gurpurb Sri Guru Nanak Dev) as a trading holiday for the Capital Market segment. The equity, derivatives, and securities-lending segments are all closed that day, and normal trading resumes on Wednesday, 25 November 2026.

Will the stock market be closed on Christmas 2026?

Yes. Friday, 25 December 2026 is confirmed as a trading holiday in circular NSE/CMTR/71775. It is the final equity trading holiday of calendar 2026. With the weekend of 26 and 27 December following immediately, the exchange reopens on Monday, 28 December 2026.

Does a trading holiday push back my income-tax deadlines?

No. Income-tax deadlines run on the statutory calendar under the Income-tax Act, not the exchange calendar. The 15 December 2026 advance-tax instalment and the 31 December 2026 belated-return deadline stand regardless of whether the NSE is open, because they are set by the Income-tax Department at incometax.gov.in.

What is the last date to file a belated return for AY 2026-27?

31 December 2026, under Section 139(4) of the Income-tax Act. A belated or revised return filed by that date can carry a late fee of up to Rs 5,000 under Section 234F, reduced to Rs 1,000 where total income does not exceed Rs 5 lakh, and most losses cannot be carried forward on a belated filing. This date sits just after the 25 December holiday, so plan the filing early.

Does my SIP skip a month because of the holidays?

No. A systematic investment plan debits on its mandate date, and if that date is a holiday the debit processes on the next business day, with units allotted at the applicable NAV. A two-day exchange holiday does not interrupt a monthly plan; you can model the remaining 2026 instalments with our SIP calculator.

When does the RBI next decide on the repo rate?

The Monetary Policy Committee is scheduled to meet from 5 to 7 October 2026. The repo rate was last set at 5.25 per cent, held unchanged on 5 August 2026 for the fourth time in 2026. The resolution will be published on rbi.org.in.

Are advance-tax interest charges affected by the December holiday?

No. If less than 75 per cent of the estimated FY 2026-27 liability is paid by 15 December 2026, interest at 1 per cent a month applies under Section 234C irrespective of the exchange being open on the days around that date. The instalment is due on the 15th as a working-day statutory deadline.