Stock Market Timings in India - All You Need to Know | Espresso

Share Market Timings in India Explained

The stock markets are one of the oldest and most popular means of earning money. They offer various kinds of opportunities to investors to invest and grow their money multiple times within a short span.

Published on 11 April 2022

In the pre-COVID era, the popularity of the stock markets rose a few notches higher as an increasing number of people started to look for earning opportunities from their homes.

As per the combined data by the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) and the Central Depository Services Limited (CDSL), a whopping 1.43 new investors opened their Demat accounts to invest in the stock markets in Financial Year 2020-21.

If you’re also looking to enter the stock market ecosystem, the first thing that you need to know is the share market timings in India. This is because there are so many stock markets or stock exchanges in the world, and the stock market timings of different stock exchanges are different. Similarly, the stock market timings in India are unique in their own way.

Stock Exchanges in India

The term stock markets stand equivalent to stock exchanges. If you want to place trade orders on the stock markets, you need to do it through stock exchanges only. As per the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) website, there are seven stock exchanges in India, with the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) being the two most prominent ones.

Here is a list of all seven stock exchanges in India:

  • Bombay Stock Exchange
  • National Stock Exchange
  • Calcutta Stock Exchange
  • Indian Commodity Exchange Limited
  • Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India
  • Multi Commodity Exchange of India
  • National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange

All these stock markets are functional as per standardised Indian stock market timings.

Stock Market Timings in India

The share market timings in India are standardised across all Indian stock exchanges. Trading is permitted in these exchanges from Monday to Friday (except public holidays). No trading is allowed on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays. A list of public holidays on which the stock exchanges remain closed is released by the SEBI at the start of every financial year.

In a very broad spectrum, the stock market opening time in India is 9.15 AM, and the closing time is 3.30 PM. However, for various other share trading-related activities, there are special periods called the pre-opening session and the closing session that commence before and after the share market timings. Below is the detailed information about the share market timings in India:

1. Pre-opening session

The pre-opening session refers to a short period before the market opens at 9.15 AM. This session starts at 9 AM on all trading days and lasts for 15 minutes. The pre-opening session can be further segregated into three smaller slots:

  • 9 AM to 9.08 AM

This is the slot in which the share markets start their daily functioning. Traders can start placing their trade orders during this period. The orders placed during this period get preferential treatment when the market opens.

  • 08 AM to 9.12 AM

The opening prices of the securities are determined during this period. As a trader, you will get to know at what price a share or index will open in the market on a given date.

  • 12 AM to 9.15 AM

This is a three-minute transitional period between the pre-opening session and the normal session. No order can be revoked or modified during this period.

2. Normal session

The normal trading session commences at 9.15 AM and remains active till 3:30 PM. This session is also known as the primary trading session, as most of the trading activities take place during this session. The prices of securities continue to fluctuate during the normal trading session, and traders are allowed to place, revoke, and modify their orders at any time.

All trade orders placed during the normal trading session follow a bilateral order matching system. It means that the orders get executed based on a match in pricing demand between a buyer and a seller.

3. Closing session

The share markets in India close at 3.30 PM, and the closing session begins after that and ends at 4 PM. All trades are concluded during this period by the stock exchanges. The closing session can also be segregated into two slots:

  • 30 PM to 3.40 PM

The closing prices of securities are decided during this period based on their weighted average trading prices between 3 PM to 3.30 PM.

  • 40 PM to 4 PM

The session is very similar to the pre-opening session. It is also called the post-market order session. You can place buy and sell orders for equity trading during this session.

To Conclude

This concludes our blog on share market timings in India. Both NSE timings and BSE timings are similar. You can trade in these exchanges between 9.15 AM to 3.30 PM. After the closing of this window, you can place an After Market Order (AMO) which will get executed the next day when the markets reopen. Apart from this, there is a Muhurat Trading window of one hour on the occasion of Diwali.

Chandresh Khona
Team Espresso

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