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Share Market Timings in India

Stock exchanges facilitate transactions in financial assets like equities, bonds, commodities, etc. Market participants can buy or sell shares in these Exchanges. These transactions in stock exchanges lead to price discovery as demand and supply drive the price. Additionally, it also provides liquidity to the market.

Numerous investors participate daily in the share market. The activities involve hedging, arbitrage, speculation, and investment. Like any market, share markets are open for a certain period during the day. In this article, we will examine the share market, currency market, and forex trading time in India.

Indian Stock Market Timing For Trade is Divided Into Three Segments:

The Indian stock market is open for a specific time. Trading, investing, hedging, or any other activities related to the stock market is conducted within this specified period. The stock trading time in India can be categorized into three segments. These are:

  • Pre-opening session

  • Normal market sessions

  • Post-closing session

The Indian stock market remains open from Monday to Friday, five days a week. The market closes during scheduled national holidays with a special trading session occurring on Diwali, known as “Muhurat Trading.”

You need a Demat and trading account to access the share market operation digitally on the stock exchange. Like many investors, you can consider discount brokers to save on brokerage costs. Bajaj Financial Securities Ltd (BFSL) is one of the leading names in the discount broking space.

Let us look closely at the Share Market timings in India.

NOTE: The following times mentioned are in the Indian Standard Time (IST) zone.

Pre-Opening Market Session

This market session can be classified into three-time fragments:

  • 9:00 – 9:08 am: This portion of the pre-opening market session accepts orders from market participants. A buy or sell order for any security can be placed and modified by market participants. However, some securities can’t be transacted due to restrictions imposed by the exchanges. Orders placed during this time are given settlement preferences when the normal market commences operation.
  • 9:08 – 9:12 am: During this time fragment, orders placed during the previous time fragments are matched using a multilateral order matching system. Market participants can’t modify or adjust their orders during this period. This interval is essential for the price determination of each security traded on the exchange. Securities’ prices are determined by their demand (buy order) and supply (sell order).
  • 9:12 – 9: 15 am: The three minutes in this session function as an adjustment period between pre-opening and normal market sessions. Orders cannot be placed during this time, and adjustments on orders placed before this time cannot be made.

Normal Market Session

Also referred to as a continuous trading session, this market session lasts from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm. This is the normal share market trading time. During this market session, market participants can place and modify their orders according to their wishes. This is the period where the majority of trading activities occur. Here you can observe intraday traders executing their trades, hedgers placing orders to reduce risk exposures, etc. A bilateral order matching system matches the orders placed during this period. Unlike multilateral order matching systems, bilateral order matching systems are volatile. This results in volatile prices of securities. This inherent volatile nature of the normal market session makes trading in the stock market possible. The exchanges like BSE, NSE, etc., may curtail or extend the normal trading hours when deemed necessary. For instance, if the market is crashing rapidly, the exchange may reduce the normal trading session to limit losses.

The NSE, on February 24, 2021, suffered from technical difficulty, resulting in a four-hour-long disruption in trading. This resulted in the NSE trading time being extended beyond the normal trading timing to 5:00 pm.1

Post-Closing Session

This session happens after the normal trading hours close at 3:30 pm. This post-closing session can be categorized into two different time segments:

  • 3:30 – 3:40 pm: This ten-minute time span is the period when the closing prices of each traded security are calculated. The average weighted methodology is used for ascertaining closing prices. After the closing prices of each security are calculated, the closing price of the benchmark and sectoral performance can be determined.
  • 3:40 – 4:00 pm: Within these twenty minutes, market participants can place orders for the next day’s trade. The transaction is completed if the buyers and sellers can be matched. Orders placed during this post-session can be altered or cancelled during the 9:00 - 9:08 am pre-opening market session of the following trading day.

Forex Market Timings in India

Currencies of multiple nations are traded in the foreign exchange (forex) market. The forex market is tradable 24/5 in India. Although currency trading time in India is open 24 hours a day, liquidity fluctuates depending on the time. The currency trading time can be categorized into three major sessions:

  • The Asian market session: 05:30 am– 11:30 am
  • The European market session: 01:00 pm – 10:00 pm
  • The North American market session: 07:00 pm – 01:30 am

Since the forex market remains open 24 hours a day across multiple time zones, Indian market participants can transact at any moment as long as the market is open.

If you are wondering what today’s trading time is, you can quickly refer to this article to find it out. The above-mentioned trading time for the Indian share market is the same for both the NSE and BSE. There is no different Sensex trading time. The currency trading time for Indian forex participants is quite accommodating. However, traders must check for enough liquidity in the session to facilitate quick order execution.

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