Share Market Timings in India
You must be properly informed about Indian stock market timings in order to trade or invest in the financial markets. The times of the stock market are consistent throughout the nation. As a result, once you learn the stock market’s opening and closing times, you can buy, sell, or invest in shares from anywhere in the nation at those times. These hours apply regardless of whether you intend to trade on the BSE or the NSE, India’s two main stock exchanges.
The market opens for regular trading at 9:15 AM and closes at 3:30 PM. Before 09:15 AM, there is a pre-opening session, and after 3:30 PM, there is a post-closing session.
Pre-opening session
Pre-opening sessions typically last from 9:00 AM to 9:00 AM. It is further broken down into three parts. For a brief period, you may submit orders to purchase or sell shares during one of these timeslots. The pre-opening session’s specifics are listed below.
Section 1: From 09:00 AM to 09:08 AM
During these 8 minutes, you can place orders to buy or sell different shares in the stock market. You can also modify or cancel any orders that you may have placed. When the normal trading session begins at 09:15 AM, the orders placed during this section of the pre-opening session get preference in the queue of orders.
Section 2: From 09:08 AM to 09:12 AM
During these 4 minutes, you cannot place any new orders, modify existing ones, or cancel any order. This section is necessary so that price matching can be performed. Price matching involves comparing demand and supply. It helps determine the final prices at which different shares will be traded when the market opens at 09:15 AM.
Section 3: From 09:12 AM to 09:15 AM
This 3-minute window of time is like a connection section between the pre-opening session and the normal trading hours. It behaves like a buffer to ease the transition into the regular trading session. Again, during these 3 minutes as well, you cannot place, modify, or cancel any orders.
Normal session
This is also known as the continuous trading session, and it runs from 09:15 AM to 03:30 PM. During this session, you can trade freely, place orders to buy or sell stocks, and modify or cancel your buy or sell orders without any limitations. During this window, a bilateral order matching system is followed. This means that each sell order is matched with a buy order that has been placed at the same stock price, and each buy order is matched with a sell order that has been placed at the same stock price.
Post-closing session
This session begins when the regular trading session comes to a close at 03:30 PM. The post-closing session, which runs up to 04:00 PM, consists of two sections.
Section 1: From 03:30 PM to 03:40 PM
In these 10 minutes, the closing prices of stocks are calculated by taking the weighted average of the stock prices traded between 03:00 PM and 03:30 PM. The closing prices of indices like Sensex and Nifty are calculated by considering the weighted average prices of all the securities that are listed in that index.
Section 2: From 03:40 PM to 04:00 PM
In this 20-minute section, you can still place buy and sell orders. But the orders are confirmed only if there are sufficient numbers of buyers and sellers in the market.
Muhurat trading
In India, the stock market typically remains closed on public and national holidays. However, on Diwali each year, the stock market is open for one hour for a Muhurat trading session; this is in place since Diwali is considered to be an auspicious day. The time and the date for this session changes each year.
Conclusion
Being aware of the stock market timings are vital to earn profits, especially if you pursue intraday trading. All you need is an online Demat account and trading account to get started on your journey of trading or investing in the share market. You can open an online Demat and trading account with any one of the many depository participants in India, like IIFL.
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