If you are planning to trade in India's stock markets, you need to know what the stock market timings are. In India, the stock market opens and closes at fixed times on each trading day. More specifically, the regular stock market timings in India start at 9:15 AM and end at 3:30 PM on weekdays (except specified trading holidays).
During this time frame, you can place regular trading orders on the two main bourses — the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE). In addition to the general share market opening time and stock market closing time, you also need to be aware of the different variations in the stock market timings and the exceptions to this regular trading window.
The overall stock market timings in India includes three key segments — the pre-open trading session, the regular trading session and the closing session. Check out these trading segments in detail.
The window from 9:00 AM to 9:15 AM constitutes the pre-open trading session. During this session, the market supports pre-open orders to buy or sell shares. This session can further be divided into three segments, depending on the activity that occurs in each window.
9:00 AM to 9:08 AM: In the first eight minutes of the pre-open session, you can place new orders or modify existing orders. These orders may be given preference once the regular trading session starts at 9:15 AM.
9:08 AM to 9:12 AM: Once the window for placing pre-open market orders closes, price matching begins. In this segment, orders are matched against one another to determine the demand and supply. It also helps identify the prices at which different stocks will open in the regular trading session.
9:12 AM to 9:15 AM: This 3-minute session does not support any order placement. It acts as a transitional phase between the pre-open session and the regular trading hours. The final opening prices of different stocks are determined in this phase.
You may be familiar with this segment of the stock market timings in India. It is when traders can place buy and sell orders normally in the market via the NSE and the BSE. Orders are matched and settled using the bilateral matching system, where a buy order is matched with a corresponding sell order and both orders are settled.
This session occurs at the end of the Indian share market timings, i.e. after 3:30 PM, which is why it is also known as the post-closing session. It lasts up to 4:00 PM and is essential for determining the closing price of each stock or security.
The closing session in the Indian stock market timings is both complex and crucial. It can be further divided into these two sections.
3:30 PM to 3:40 PM: In these 10 minutes, the closing price of each stock is calculated using the weighted average of the stock's prices in the last 30 minutes of the normal trading session, i.e. from 3:00 PM to 3:30 PM.
3:40 PM to 4:00 PM: In this post-closing trading session, you can place orders at the closing price. Orders thus placed will only be confirmed if they are matched against those by other buyers or sellers, as the case may be.
| S.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. |
This type of order is placed after the regular stock market timings in India. On the NSE, you can place AMOs from 3:45 PM on one trading day to 8:57 AM on the next. On the BSE, you can place AMOs from 3:45 PM on one trading day to 8:59 AM on the next. However, you cannot place aftermarket orders during the scheduled maintenance window, which is typically from 1:00 AM to 5:30 AM.
These orders will be executed when the market opens next. It can be useful if you want to place a trade the next day but may be unavailable during the share market opening time.
The stock market remains closed on national holidays and other festivals. This includes Diwali. However, since the festival has great significance for prosperity and wealth creation, the stock market remains open for one hour on Diwali every year. This special trading window is known as the Muhurat trading session.
The date and time for this session will be notified by the exchanges. For instance, the Muhurat trading session in 2024 is scheduled for November 1.
