A few scheduled announcements can move the whole market in minutes. The Economic calendar lists them with their dates and Indian times, taken from the official schedules of the RBI, the statistics ministry (MoSPI) and the US Federal Reserve.
The main events
- RBI policy (about every two months, 10:00): the repo rate decision. The biggest scheduled event for banks and the whole market.
- CPI inflation (around the 12th, 16:00): the main inflation number the RBI watches.
- WPI inflation (around the 14th, 12:00): wholesale prices; usually a small market mover.
- IIP (around the 28th, 16:00): factory output.
- GDP (end of February, May, August and November, 16:00): growth for the quarter.
- Union Budget (1 February, 11:00): taxes and spending for the year.
- US Fed decision (eight a year): announced at 23:30 Indian time in US summer, otherwise 00:30 the next day, so the Indian market reacts the next morning.
NIFTY move on such days
For each kind of event the page shows how much NIFTY moved, on average, on past days with that event, against an ordinary day over the last year. An event announced after 15:30 is measured on the next trading day. Bigger than usual means that kind of day has tended to bring larger moves, so expect option premiums to be higher going into it.
Event days also appear as markers on the straddle charts, so you can see the straddle's reaction at the minute of the announcement. Times are shown in 24-hour Indian time.