Trading session is a period starting from the market’s opening bell to its closing bell. It’s the primary daytime trading hours of a stock exchange. Beginners should be aware of trading session hours for any financial securities that they are interested in trading.
Different markets such as futures, currencies, commodities and stocks have different trading sessions for a day. Due to different time zones, trading sessions from one country to another also differ.
In India normal trading sessions start from 9:15 AM to 3:30 PM IST.
For the US market, regular trading sessions start from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET).
Many stock exchanges have lunch break. In India, both National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and BSE Limited have no lunch break. Shanghai, Tokyo, Shenzhen, London and Hong Kong stock exchanges have lunch breaks.
Pre-market and after hours trading session are allowed in different countries for various reasons. For instance in US, pre-market trading session starts from 4:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. ET on weekdays and after hour trading sessions starts from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET on weekdays.
Here is the trading session or market hour timing for NSE and BSE;
- From 9.00 AM to 9.08 AM: During this period market participants can place orders to buy or sell securities in the market. They can even modify or cancel existing orders placed. Once the normal market session begins at 9.15 AM, the orders placed during such slots will get preference in the queue of orders.
- From 9.08 AM to 9.12 AM: Market participants cannot place any new orders or modify/cancel the existing orders. This time slot is used by the stock exchanges to perform the price matching actions.
- From 9.12 AM to 9.15 AM: Known as pre-opening session or buffer period. New orders can not be placed and existing orders cannot be modified. This session helps to create a buffer to ease the transition into normal market trading hours.
- From 9.15 AM to 3.30 PM: Normal trading session. In normal trading hours anyone can buy, sell, trade, or invest in stocks. At 3.30 PM the normal trading session ends.
- From 3.30 PM to 3.40 PM: Closing price of stocks is calculated by taking the weighted average price of the stock traded between 3.00 PM to 3.30 PM.
- From 3.40 PM to 4.00 PM: During this period orders can be placed and confirmed only if there are a sufficient number of buyers and sellers in the market.
After closing of the day, no transaction can take place. However, market participants can place after market orders (AMO) for stocks or other financial securities. These After Market Orders (AMO) would be allocated to the opening market price of the next trading day.
What is Muhurat Trading
Both NSE and BSE are closed all weekends and major public/national holidays as notified by these stock exchanges timely.
However, on Diwali day each year, the stock market is open for one hour to market participants for trading . It’s known as the Muhurat trading session.
The time and date of Muhurat trading sessions may vary each year. Both BSE and NSE will notify on their website.
In addition to the above sessions both NSE and BSE have specific time slots for block deals.
