Know Share Market Timings in India

To trade in the Indian financial markets, you need to have an online demat account and an online trading account. The demat account acts as a virtual space in which you can hold the shares you own. The trading account, on the other hand, allows you to trade in the financial markets. With a combination of an online demat account and an online trading account, you can buy, hold, and sell stocks and other financial assets as you need to.

You also need to be aware of the stock market timings before you trade or invest in the markets. All over the country, the share market timings are the same. So, once you get to know what the stock market timings are, you can make use of this information to buy, sell, or invest in shares from any part of the country. The timings are also the same whether you want to trade on any of the two major stock exchanges in India, namely the BSE and the NSE.

As per the normal stock market timings, the market opens at 09:15 AM and closes at 03:30 PM. There’s a pre-opening session before 09:15 AM and a post-closing session after 03:30 PM. So, all in all, the share market timings consist of the pre-opening session, the normal session, and the post-closing session.

Pre-opening session

The pre-opening session starts at 09:00 AM and extends up to 09:15 AM. It’s further divided into three sections. During one of these sections, you can place orders to buy or sell shares for a limited period. Let’s look at the details of the pre-opening session 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. In addition to that, 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 of the share market timings, 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. On Diwali each year, however, the stock market is open for a one-hour session. Known as the 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

So, you now know the stock market timings in India. All you need next is an online demat account and an online trading account to get started on your journey of trading or investing in the share market. You can open an online demat account and an online trading account with any one of the many depository participants in India, like IIFL.