Indian stocks sank and rupee weakened as a retaliatory attack on US-led forces by Iran spurred another crude-rally, stoking fears of rising inflation at one of the world's top oil importers. Other Asian shares and US Treasury yields also tumbled while gold-shot-higher after Iran fired missiles at Iraqi facilities hosting US-led coalition personnel, in retaliation for the US strike killing an Iranian commander last-week.

The year 2019 saw the domestic economy stutter and stall. To put it in the words of former RBI governor Dr Raghuram Rajan, we are in the middle of a "Growth Recession". Household, corporate, bank and government balance sheets are all stressed at the same time. Private consumption has slowed, private CAPEX is virtually non-existent and exports have failed to pick up.

The BSE and the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) will remain closed on December-25 on account of Christmas. Wholesale commodity markets, including metal and bullion, will also remain shut. There will be no trading activity in the forex and commodity futures markets as well. On December 24, the Sensex ended 181.40 points lower at 41,461.26, while Nifty was down 48.30 points at 12,214.50.