Share market timings India

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Trading in the stock market anywhere in the world can be done only during a certain time interval. The same is true in the Indian stock market.

As we trade through the stock exchange and in India we have 2 major stock exchanges which are BSE and NSE. Having 2 stock exchanges does not mean that there are 2 different timings in the Indian stock market.
Indian share market timings are the same for both these exchanges.

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The stock market in India remains open 5 days a week, from Monday to Friday. You can’t trade on Saturdays and Sundays.

The market is open from Monday to Friday doesn’t mean that it remains open for the whole day. There is the opening time of the market and a closing time i.e. 9:15 and 3:30 respectively. During this time you can trade in the market but it isn’t the end, share market timings also consist of other sessions other than this trading session.

Stock market timings consist of the following sessions or segments:

Pre-market Opening Session
Normal Session
Closing Session
Post-closing Session
Aftermarket Hours

1. Pre-market Opening Session

Session timing: 9:00 AM – 9:15 AM
This session is also known as the “Pre-opening Session”.
It can be further classified into 3 sessions:

1.1 Order Entry Session

1.2 Order Matching Session

1.3 Buffer Session

1.1 Order Entry Session

This session lasts from 9:00 AM to 9:08 AM. During this period, you can place your orders. You can also modify or cancel these placed orders in this 8-minute time.

You can only place market orders or limit orders during this period.

The orders placed at this time are given preference over the orders placed during the Normal session i.e. after the Pre-opening session. The AMOs (After Market Orders) also get placed during the Order Entry Session.

As soon as this session ends, the exchange collects the order and after that, you cannot modify or cancel your order.

1.2 Order Matching Session

With random closure of the Order Entry session in the last one minute i.e. 8th minute, order matching of the placed orders starts immediately.

This session lasts from 9:08 AM to 9:12 AM. During this time of around 5 minutes, orders are matched by the exchange using the Multilateral order matching system. The stock exchange matches the orders and decides the opening price of the day for each particular stock.

The orders are only matched during this session, they’re not got executed as the execution of orders is done after 9:15 i.e. when the normal session starts.

1.3 Buffer Session

This session lasts from 9:12 AM to 9:15 AM.

Nothing happens in this session as the investors placed their orders and the exchange collected them in the order entry session then the exchange matched the collected orders in the order matching session and decided the opening price for the stocks.

This 3-4 minute time acts as a transition period between the Pre-opening Session and the Normal session.

2. Normal Session

Session timing: 9:15 AM – 3:30 PM
This session is also known as a “Trading session” or “Market hours”.
Orders placed during the pre-opening session are executed at the beginning of this session.
During this period, you can place any type of order except AMOs as they get rejected as AMOs are for aftermarket hours.
This is the time when most of the trading takes place.
Orders placed during the trading session are matched using a Bilateral order matching system.

3. Closing Session

Session timing: 3:30 PM – 3:40 PM
This session is also known as the “Closing price calculation session” as the closing price of the stocks and the indices are calculated during these 10 minutes.
The closing price of a stock is the weighted average of the prices between 3:00 PM to 3:30 PM.
For the indexes like Sensex & nifty, its closing price is the weighted average of the constituent stocks for the last 30 minutes i.e. Between 3:00 PM to 3:30 PM.

4. Post-closing Session

Session timing: 3:40 PM – 4:00 PM
This session is also known as the “Post-market session”.
Many people think that they can only trade during the normal trading session but the fact is that you can trade also in the post-closing session.
Due to a lack of knowledge of the post-closing session, not so many investors trade during this session, so the post-market session is not very active.
You can place orders to buy or sell stocks in the post-closing session at the closing price. If buyers/sellers are available then your trade will be confirmed at the closing price.

5. Aftermarket Hours

Well, this is not a session, but the time from 4:00 PM of the current day to 9:00 AM the next day is known as Aftermarket Hours in the stock market world as these are the aftermarket hours.
You cannot trade during this time but you can place AMOs (aftermarket orders) which will be collected (during the order entry session of the pre-opening session) and will be executed (after the pre-opening session) the next day.