Stock Market Timings in India.

Stock market timings in india are divided into three phases or sessions. They are:

1) Normal Trading session.

2) Pre-opening session.

3) Post-opening session.

 Let’s a deep look of every sessions or phases. 

1) Normal Trading Session:

     The timing of this session is 9:15 AM to 3:30 PM. In this time period you can buy or sell any stock which is listed in stock exchange anytime. This is the actual timing of trading in stock market mainly. In the normal trading session Bilateral system is used. Bilateral system means when the price of buyer and seller is matched, the transactions will be completed smoothly and simply. If buyer or seller are more than, the transaction will be completed on the basis of time( order place ) and priority. Pre-opening session is done before Normal Trading Session.

2) Pre-opening session:

       9:00 AM to 9:15 AM is the time period of this session. This session has also three slots. They are :

     i. Order entry period :

                The time period of this slot is 9:00 AM to 9:08 AM. In this time period you can buy or sell any stock and also modify or cancel your order. This slot is closed about 9:07 AM to 9:08 AM.

    ii. Order matching period:

               9:08 AM to 9:12 AM is the time period of this slot. Here order matching processing is done. But you can not modify or cancel your order in this slot.in this time period the opening price of stock in Normal Trading session is calculated.

   iii. Buffer period :

             The time period of this slot is between 9:12 AM to 9:15 AM. This time helps to transition the Pre-opening session to Normal Trading session.

        The use of pre-opening session is to discover the starting price of stock. Here Multilateral Matching system is used. Multilateral system means when the price of buyer and seller matched most for any stock, this price is nominated for the opening price of any stock in Normal Trading session.

         Till some years ago to discover the opening price of any stock Bilateral system is used. In this system when the pricr of buyer and seller is matched for same stock, the transaction will be completed and nominated for the starting pricr of this stock. But when buyer and seller are more than, the starting price of stock in Normal Trading session become volatile and have to face problem of deciding the opening price of stock.

For this Stock Exchange introduced the Multilateral Matching system and this system is used now to decide the starting price of stock. This system decide the price which most of buyer and seller choose to place orders. Using this method Stock Exchange try to decrease the volatility of stock’s opening price.

    But  a little number of traders participate in pre-opening session. Most of traders tradein Normal Trading session. For this there is volatility in stock’s opening price in Normal trading session. According to a report of Indian Institute of  Management Ahemabad there is volatility for about 25 to 30 minutes after opening Normal trading session.

        After the Normal trading session in 3:30 PM there needs 10 minutes to calculate stock’s closing price. When the Normal Trading session ends in 3:30 PM, the stock’s price on this time is not the closing price of stock. Stock’s closing price is the weighted average price of last 30 minutes (3:00 PM to 3:30PM) stock’s price in Normal trading session.

And the closing price of Index like Nifty and Sensex is the weighted average price of last 30 minutes price of stocks which are included in NSE and BSE in Normal Trading session. Usually closing price is calculated in 2-3 minutes or between 3:30 PM to 3:33 PM. After calculating the closing price the Post closing session starts its program.

3) Post-closing session:

         The time period of this session is between 3:40 PM to 4:00 PM only for 20 minutes. You can buy or sell the stock in this period in the closing price.

      Pre-opening session and Post-opening session is only applicable for cash market not for Futures & Options (F&O). So in short timings of Indian stock market is :

1) Pre-opening session (9:00 AM to 9:15 AM).

2) Normal Trading session (9:15 AM to 3:30     PM).

3) Closing price calculation (3:30 PM to 3:40 PM).

4) Post-closing session (3:40 PM to 4:00 PM).

         If you can not buy or sell stock in Normal Trading session or stock market time then you can place order AMO type or After Market Order type. Here actual trading is not done. You can place AMO type order from after closing stock market to open the stock market. Here stock market is closed but you can just palce order that will be executed in next stock market day. Each broker (Upstox, Zerodha etc.) has their own AMO order type timing. Some of them does not provide AMO order type.

* Special session:

         In stock market timing there us also special session of trading called Muhurat Trading session. The stock market is opened in this session for about 1 hours in Diwali. The Stock Exchange announced Muhurat Trading session about 2-3 days ago.

  Best wishes to invest.

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