The Stock Market in India is open for 5 days a week. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) are open Monday to Friday – except National Holidays which are declared in advance.
Market timings can be divided into three main categories:
- Pre Opening Session – 9:00AM to 9:15AM
- Normal Session – 9:15AM to 3:30PM
- Post Closing Session – 3:30 to 4:00PM
The first session of the day is called the ‘Pre Opening Session’, which is divided into 2 parts:
- Order Entry Session (9:00AM to 9:08AM) – During the first 7 minutes starting from 9AM, you can place buy or sell orders. Between 9:07AM to 9:08AM, the exchange will stop taking new orders.
- Order Matching Session (9:08AM to 9:15AM) – No new orders can be placed after 9:08AM. The orders placed between 9:00AM to 9:08AM will be matched and confirmed.
The Normal Market session is between 9:15AM to 3:30PM. During this period, stocks are actively traded. Buy or sell orders can be placed at any time.
The final session of the day, called the ‘Post Closing Session’, starts at 3:30PM. The time period between 3:30PM to 3:40PM is used to calculate the closing price of stocks.
Between 3:40PM to 4:00PM, orders can be placed if buyer or seller is available. The order will be executed at closing price only.
Reason for Pre Opening Session
The Pre Opening Session was first started by NSE and BSE on October 18 2010. The reason was quite simple – to reduce volatility in stock prices.
Before the introduction of ‘Pre Opening Session’, the market used to be very volatile at the beginning of the day.
Stocks would show wild swings, depending on news and other events that happened after the closing of market on the previous day. To balance demand – supply and discover a suitable opening price of stocks, the ‘Pre Opening Session’ was opened.
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