Indian Stock Market Timings
In India, trading in the stock market is restricted to a certain window of time. Retail customers must carry out such transactions made using a brokerage firm weekdays from 9.15 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. Most investors engage in the buying and selling of securities available on major Indian stock exchanges Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock exchange (NSE). Indian stock market timings are the same for both these stock exchanges.
In Indian stock market trading hours are divided in three categories:
Pre-opening Timing
The duration of this session is from 9:00 am to 9:15 am. During this time, any securities buy/sell order can be placed. It can be divided into further three sessions:
9.00 a.m. – 9.08 a.m
Orders for any transaction may be placed during this time of day when the Indian stock market opens. When actual trading starts, the order entry is given preference because these orders are cleared off first. Investors have the option to modify or cancel any orders placed during this time period because orders cannot be placed after this 8-minute window during the pre-opening session.
9.08 a.m. – 9.12 a.m
The price of a security is determined by this section of the Indian stock market timing. In order to ensure accurate transactions between investors looking to buy or sell a security, demand and supply prices are matched in order. The multilateral order matching system is used to determine the final prices at which trading will start during the regular trading hours of the Indian stock market. During a typical session of the Indian stock market timing, price matching orders are crucial in determining the price at which the security is traded.
9.12 a.m. – 9.15 a.m.
This period serves as a transition between preopening and regular Indian share market hours. Orders for additional transactions cannot be placed at this time. Furthermore, bets that have already been placed between 9.08 and 9.12 a.m. cannot be cancelled.
Normal Session
The main trading hours for the Indian stock market are from 9.15 am to 3.30 pm. Bilateral order matching governs all transactions during this time, and supply and demand forces are used to determine prices. Due to the volatility of the bilateral order matching system, there are numerous market fluctuations that ultimately affect security prices. The multi-order system was developed for the pre-opening session and implemented in Indian stock market timings to reduce this volatility.
Post-closing Session
In India, the stock market closes at 3.30 p.m. After this time, no more transactions are made. But during this time, the closing price is decided, and this has a big impact on the opening security price the next day.
Stock market closing time in India divided into two sessions –
3.30 p.m. – 3.40 p.m.
The closing price is determined by taking the weighted average of prices for securities traded on a stock exchange between 3 and 3.30 p.m. Weighted average prices of listed securities are taken into consideration when calculating the closing prices of benchmark and sector indices like Nifty, Sensex, S&P Auto, etc.
3.40 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Bids for the next day’s trade can be placed during this time after the stock market closes. If sufficient buyers and sellers are present in the market during this time, bids submitted during this period are confirmed. Regardless of changes in the opening market price, these transactions are completed at the contract rate. Therefore, if an investor who has already placed bids sees their opening price exceed the closing price, they can realise capital gains. During the brief window from 9.00 a.m. to 9.08 a.m., bids may be cancelled if the closing price is higher than the opening share price.
The following table shows the total operating time of the Indian stock market:
| Sl. No. | Name | Time |
| 1 | Pre-opening session | 9.00 a.m. – 9.15 a.m. |
| 2 | Normal session | 9.15 a.m. – 3.30 p.m. |
| 3 | Closing session | 3.30 p.m. – 4.00 p.m. |
Aftermarket Orders
After this period, No transactions are allowed. Investors can, however, place aftermarket orders for selected companies’ securities, and those orders will be filled at the following day’s opening market price.
‘Muhurat’ Trading
Given that Diwali is a national holiday, the Indian stock market is typically closed for all transactions on that day. However, a one-hour trading session is held between 5.30 and 6.40 p.m. because it is consider as lucky.
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