Share Market Timings in India: Pre-Open & Post-Closing Hours

Stock markets across the world open and close as per their time zones of the country making the trading hours feasible and accessible to all types of investors. Usually, most of the financial markets open in the morning and close after noon except currency and commodity markets that work round-the-clock and close only on weekends.

Similarly, the stock market in India has been set to open and close at specific hours. Apart from normal trading hours, there are pre-opening and post-closing hours that you should know to schedule your trade timing and enjoy a hassle-free trading experience.

Stock Market Timings in India

The share market timing in India has been divided into three segments – pre-opening timing, normal trading session and post-closing session. These market timing are for equity or stocks including cash and derivatives market on both stock exchanges (NSE and BSE) in India. Let’s get to know more about these market timing and their features.

Stock Market Open and Close Time:

Trading Sessions (Hrs)	Timing
Pre-opening Session	9:00 AM to 9:15 AM
Normal Trading Session	9:15 AM to 3:30 PM
Post-closing Session	3:40 PM to 4:00 PM

Pre-opening Session

The time of the pre-opening session is 9:00 AM to 9:15 AM during which you can place the buy and sell orders during this fifteen-minute time. And this pre-opening session is further divided into the three segments that are explained below.

9:00 AM to 9:08 AM: During this time, you can place the orders to buy or sell the stocks and also modify your orders. The orders placed during this time are given the preference when normal trading time starts, as these orders are first needed to be cleared by the exchange.

9:08 AM to 9:12 AM: This time is kept reserved by the exchange to match the price in the orders according to the demand and supply of the price of securities to ensure smooth transactions among the traders or investors. During this time, you can determine the expected price of the securities at which it is likely to trade when the market opens for normal trading hours.

9:12 AM to 9:15 AM: This is the crucial time to act as a connecting point between the pre-open and normal trading session. During this time neither you place new orders nor can modify your existing orders, as the exchange finalises and matches the orders to ensure the accurate opening price.

Regular Trading Session

After the pre-opening session, regular trading hours start at 9:15 AM and run up to 3:30 PM. During thesenormal trading hours you can buy and sellsecurities across various segments of the equity market from both exchanges BSE and NSE.

During these trading hours, two-sided order matching works on a real-time basis to execute the buy orders with sell orders. And during this bilateral order matching system, the market might become volatile also affecting the price of the securities in the market.

The Post-closing Session

The market closes at 3:30 PM and no transaction takes place after closing hours and after this session, the closing price is determined. After closing hours, a post-closing session starts at 3:30 PM and runs up to 4:00 PM and this session is further divided into two slots.

3:30 PM to 3:40 PM: This period is used by the exchange to calculate the closing price of all the traded securities including all the main indices. To determine the closing price, a weighted average of prices at securities traded between 3:00 PM to 3:30 PM is taken into consideration. This weighted average formula is applied to all the benchmark and sector indices.

3:40 PM to 4:00 PM: These twenty minutes are kept by the exchange for traders to place the bids for the next trading day. Such orders are also known as After-market-Orders. If there are sufficient buyers and sellers in the market, the bids placed during this period are confirmed. However, all the transactions take place the next day at a stipulated price as per the opening price of securities.

Block Deal Session Timings       

Though, the normal trade timing is meant for all types of investors and traders including, retailers, HNIs and institutional investors. But there is another trading timing conducted two times on trading day. The first window opens in the morning between 08:45 AM to 09:00 AM, and a second window opens in the afternoon between 02:05 PM to 2:20 PM.

This is called the “Block Deal Session” which is conducted by the exchange to deal with large transactions of trading of securities. The transaction value often exceeding 0.5% of the total number of shares outstanding in a company is executed through this block deal trading session.

The block deal is usually taken between institutional investors like mutual fund houses, insurance companies, financial companies and asset management companies or banks. To conduct this session, there should be more than 0.5 million shares worth at least Rs 50 million in a single transaction and executed only after negotiations between two parties.

Other Special Trading Sessions

Apart from these trading hours, there are a few more times in which you can place the orders. However, it is not necessary that transaction takes place on such orders. Similarly, there are some special trading sessions that is conducted by the exchange on a few special days or whenever the exchange implements new technological feature in the trading system. Let’s find out such timing.

After-Market Hours: During the after-market hours, you can place buy and sell orders for the next trading session. Though such a transaction does not take place immediately, it will be executed the next day when the market opens. However, this duration provides the additional facility to place orders one day before the start of the trading hours.

Mahurat Trading: Though, the stock market remains closed on public holidays, on Diwali, it is open for the investor only for one hour. This day is considered one of the most auspicious days in Hindu community for investing in such securities or assets like Gold and Silver. The day for Mahurat Trading obviously falls every year on the date of Diwali celebrations. However, the trade timing for Mahurat Trading may differ every year as it is decided by the exchange.

Summing-up

The stock market timing in India has been set while considering the time zone of the country when a normal business hour starts. The normal trading hours between 9:15 AM to 3:30 PM have been set while considering the banking hours so that investors and traders can easily transfer their funds between their trading account to their bank account or vice-versa.

However, nowadays thanks to digitalization and the core banking system you can access and transfer your funds round-the-clock using advanced trading applications. And using such a dynamic trading platform you can trade as per the normal trading hours. However, if you don’t have the time to trade during regular trading hours, you can also place the orders during the pre-opening session or during the after-market hours to trade for the next day.

• Author: Religare Broking
• Last Updated: March 4, 2025