Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], October 21 (ANI): Ashish Chauhan, CEO of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), on Tuesday said that Indian markets will be in a much better position in the new Hindu calendar year, Samvat 2082.

Speaking to the reporters after the Muhurat trading session, Chauhan highlighted the progress India made over the past year despite global challenges.

'Already India has given 6.5 per cent returns on index basis over the last one year of Samvat, compared to that, gold and silver have given much better returns, even S &P 500 or the Nasdaq, even Japanese index has given better returns. But over the last five years, three years India has been the best performing market and next year, that is, Vikram Samvat, 2082 is going to be even better,' Chauhan added.

One-hour Muhurat trading session is conducted every year to mark the beginning of the new Hindu calendar year. In the special Muhurat Trading session today, Indian benchmark indices ended marginally higher with the Nifty closing around 25,900.

'The last year (Samvat 2081) was fraught with a lot of uncertainties, actually related to the tariff crisis across the world after Donald Trump took over the powers, but also many other areas and slowly, I think this year, the new year that is coming 2082 is going to have India in a much better position,' Chauhan added.

He noted that services exports are growing significantly, adding that India has exported at the rate of over 14 per cent and developments in telecom systems have enabled the country to offer global services remotely.

While the Sensex and Nifty remained largely flat in the special Muhurat Trading session on Tuesday, the BSE Midcap index rose 0.3 per cent, and the Smallcap index advanced 1 per cent. At the end of the Muhurat trading session, Nifty stood at 25,868.60, up 25.45 points or 0.10 per cent, while Sensex ended at 84,426.34, up 62.97 points or 0.07 per cent.

Commenting on consumer demand, Chauhan said the reduction in GST has helped drive up vehicle sales, sharing that '125,000 cars were delivered in one single day.' Comparing this to the mid-1980s, he stated, 'We were not even making 100,000' cars back then.

He said, 'So effectively we are firing on all cylinders as an economy. And the next year is going to be much better than the previous Samvat.'

Answering a question on the much-awaited Initial Public Offer (IPO) of the NSE, he said the stock exchange is awaiting the SEBI's No Objection Certificate (NoC) and estimated that 'after that, it will take 8 to 9 months' to bring the NSE IPO to market. (ANI)