Hey folks!

Diwali’s just around the corner, and it’s not just homes lighting up, investors are excited too! You see, Diwali isn’t only about celebrating the triumph of light over darkness or good over evil. It’s also a fresh start for the stock market.

And no, we’re not making this up! Back in the day, people followed the Vikram Samvat calendar, a lunar calendar based on the moon’s phases, which is 57 years ahead of the one we use today. Diwali marked the start of the accounting year in this calendar.

The tradition dates back to the era of King Chandragupta II, or Vikramaditya, as he liked to call himself.¹ He believed that kicking off new business ventures during Diwali brought good luck. So, even though India adopted the Gregorian calendar eventually, stockbrokers continued with the tradition of opening fresh settlement accounts for their clients, believing it to be the perfect time for a prosperous start.² And voila! Muhurat Trading was born.

In Hindu traditions, a ‘Muhurat’ is the best time to begin something auspicious. And Muhurat Trading officially became a part of the Indian stock market in the 20th century, with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) leading the charge in 1957.³ In 1992, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) joined in too.

So, during Diwali, Indian stock exchanges host symbolic trading sessions, typically lasting an hour in the evening. It marks the start of the financial year for many, who see it as the perfect time to pick up some fundamentally strong stocks. Over the past five years, BSE’s SENSEX has consistently gained an average of 0.6% during Muhurat Trading. And this year, it’s likely to be scheduled for November 1st.

Are you feeling lucky this Diwali? Or if you haven’t traded stocks during this time before, are you tempted to give it a shot this year? Let us know!

Fun Fact: The Vikram Samvat calendar is still Nepal’s official calendar.

Here's a soundtrack to put you in the mood 🎵

Ek Chaand by Tony Kakkar

You can thank our reader Sayali Arole for this soothing song recommendation. And funny enough, it’s not an auto-tuned remix of yet another Bollywood track. You can thank Sayali for that disclaimer too! 😁

Ready to roll?

What caught our eye this week 👀

Can you stop getting older by popping a pill?

Fruit flies or those tiny, annoying insects buzzing around moist places, bins and food, might just help us humans live longer.

Wait… what?

Yup, you read that right! Korean scientists have been working on a drug that could slow down ageing.⁴ And fruit flies, surprisingly, are their test subjects. These little guys share some key similarities with us when it comes to ageing, like muscle deterioration.

You see, to stay healthy, our body’s cells need to maintain a balance of proteins, a process called proteostasis. But as we age, this balance gets thrown off, leading to damaged proteins and diseases. That’s where the Korean team’s breakthrough drug, IU1, comes in. It could boost proteostasis and potentially slow down the ageing process, keeping us healthier for longer.

But hold on… anti-ageing drugs might already be out there. And some of us could be taking them every day without even knowing it! Take metformin, for example.⁵ It’s a widely-used, affordable drug that helps millions of people manage type 2 diabetes. And back in 2016, researchers found that diabetics taking metformin were actually ageing more slowly compared to those who weren’t.

These medicines, though, are designed to treat specific diseases. There’s no magic pill that fights all the signs of ageing. That’s because ageing is a natural process, not a disease. And for health regulators like the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to approve an anti-ageing drug, ageing would first need to be classified as a preventable condition that can be treated, which isn’t the case right now.

Plus, scientists don’t fully understand ageing yet. What we do know is that it’s a mix of factors that unfold naturally over time. For example, if someone’s born with a gene that makes them prone to Alzheimer’s, their body will age, and they might gradually lose memory as they get older. So for any drug to be considered “anti-ageing” it would need to prevent those kinds of changes. And that makes human trials tricky.

That’s why some researchers are testing anti-ageing drugs on dogs, who age 7 times faster than us.⁶ And it’s not like getting a drug approved for our furry friends is easy. It’s just quicker because dogs have shorter lifespans. In fact, the US might be on the verge of releasing a drug that could extend dog life spans by 2025. And if that happens, it could pave the way for a breakthrough in human anti-ageing treatments, eventually earning FDA approval.

So, whether it’s fruit flies or our furry friends, the quest to slow down ageing is on. Will it work? Only time will tell!

Infographic 📊

This Day in Financial History 📜

18th of October, 2004 ― The end of Veerappan

On this day, one of India’s most feared outlaws, Veerappan, met his end.

For over thirty years, Koose Munisamy Veerappan ruled the forests of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, controlling over 6,000 square kilometres of dense jungle and treating it like his backyard.⁷

His reign involved smuggling, poaching and orchestrating crimes that seemed straight out of a movie plot.

Veerappan’s criminal journey began early as a teenager.⁸ He hunted elephants, not one or two, but hundreds of them, for the highly valuable ivory. His actions caused a sharp decline in the male elephant population, which not only skewed the tuskers’ sex ratio but also significantly reduced their overall numbers in South India.

But when the government cracked down on the ivory trade, Veerappan didn’t just throw in the towel. He switched gears and dove into something even more profitable ― sandalwood smuggling. And that allegedly earned him a jaw-dropping ₹100 crores.

It wasn’t just smuggling that filled his resume of crimes. He dabbled in extortion, kidnapping and murder, claiming 120 lives, including police and forest officials.

Kidnapping Kannada film icon Rajkumar in 2000 was one of his most audacious moves. For 108 days, the entire nation was on edge. Veerappan demanded a ₹30 crore, and he wasn’t bluffing.

With all these brazen crimes, you’d think he would’ve been caught sooner, right? Not quite.

Veerappan was the master of evasion.

In 1991, the Indian government set up a Special Task Force (STF) to catch him, but for years, he played a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse.

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu spent over ₹150 crores in their pursuit, with some estimates suggesting that the figure might have been closer to ₹300 crores per state.⁹

The chase started way back in 1983. But as they say, no game can last forever. By 2004, the STF had had enough. They launched ‘Operation Cocoon’, and Veerappan, ever confident in his ability to outsmart them, walked straight into their trap.¹⁰

In a fierce gunfight, Veerappan’s reign of terror ended, and the jungle finally had peace.

And with that, one of India’s longest and most expensive manhunts closed its chapter.

Readers Recommend 🗒️

This week our reader Kaartic Sivaraam recommends listening to The Hanselminutes Podcast by Scott Hanselman. It’s a tech podcast. But Hanselman does a great job of breaking things down so that everyone can follow along, even if you’re not a tech expert.

So whether you’re into tech or not, you might want to tune into this one. Thanks for the rec Kaartic!

Finshots Weekly Quiz 🧩

It’s time to announce the winners of our last two weekly quizzes. And the winners are…🥁

Shafqat Ali and Prashantini S. Congratulations! Keep an eye on your inbox and we’ll get in touch with you soon to send over your Finshots merch. And for the rest of you, we’ve moved the quiz to our weekly wrapup. So make sure you answer all the questions correctly by 12 noon on October 26, 2024 (Saturday) and tune in here next week to check if you got lucky.

Anyway, that’s it from us this week. We’ll see you next Sunday!

Until then, don’t forget to tell us what you thought of today’s newsletter. And send us your book, music, business movies, documentaries or podcast recommendations. We’ll feature them in the newsletter! Just hit reply to this email (or if you’re reading this on the web, drop us a message: morning@finshots.in).

🖖🏽

Don't forget to share this edition on WhatsApp, LinkedIn and X.

Sources: Livemint [1], Kotak Securities [2], Forbes India [3], India Today [4], BBC Science Focus [5], Business Insider [6], IPCS [7], Britannica [8], The Times of India [9], The Statesman [10]

Note: An earlier version of this edition mentioned that Sikh traditions also consider Muhurats for auspicious events. However, we have now corrected this to say that it is solely a Hindu tradition. We’re sorry for the error.

Do you think India is on the path to become a SUPERPOWER?

In our latest episode of FinshotsTV we breakdown the biggest obstacles in our path to becoming a superpower! Click here to dive in.