Stock Market Seasonality: A Study of the Indian Stock Market

1.0 Introduction Seasonal variations in production and sales are a well known fact in business. Seasonality refers to regular and repetitive fluctuation in a time series which occurs periodically over a span of less than a year. The main cause of seasonal variations in time series data is the change in climate. For example, sales of woolen clothes generally increase in winter season. Besides this, customs and tradition also affect economic variables for instance sales of gold increase during marriage seasons. Similarly, stock returns exhibits systematic patterns at certain times of the day, week or month. The most common of these are monthly patterns; certain months provide better returns as compared to others i.e. the month of the year effect. Similarly, some days of the week provides lower returns as compared to other trading days i.e. days of the week effect.