The India Stock Market is closed every Saturday and Sunday, and also on holidays issued by stock exchanges.
Here is the list of holidays of stock exchanges:
Trading Holidays For Equity (BSE & NSE)
| Sr. No | Days | Holidays | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tuesday | Republic Day | 26 January 2021 |
| 2 | Thursday | Mahashivratri | 11 March 2021 |
| 3 | Monday | Holi | 29 March 2021 |
| 4 | Friday | Good Friday | 02 April 2021 |
| 5 | Wednesday | Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Jayanti | 14 April 2021 |
| 6 | Wednesday | Ram Navami | 21 April 2021 |
| 7 | Thursday | Ramzan Id (Id-Ul-Fitr) | 13 May 2021 |
| 8 | Wednesday | Bakri Id | 21 July 2021 |
| 9 | Thursday | Moharram | 19 August 2021 |
| 10 | Friday | Ganesh Chaturthi | 10 September 2021 |
| 11 | Friday | Dussehra | 15 October 2021 |
| 12 | Thursday | Diwali-Laxmi Pujan | 04 November 2021 |
| 13 | Friday | Diwali-Balipratipada | 05 November 2021 |
| 14 | Friday | Gurunanak Jayanti | 19 November 2021 |
Basically, the timing of the Indian stock market is divided into 3 sections;
- Normal Section (Normal Trading Section or Continuous Trading Section)
- Pre-opening Section
- Post-closing sections
Normal Trading Sections
The normal trading section is from 9:15 am to 3:30 pm. In this section, you can buy or sell your shares anytime from 9:15 am to 3:30 pm.
If you say, this is the actual timing of the stock market. A bilateral matching system is used in the normal trading section i.e. when the buyer’s or seller’s price matches, then automatically the transaction is completed.
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If there are more buyers and sellers, then all the transactions are completed according to the priority of price time. There is a per opening section of 15 minutes before the normal trading sections.
Pre-Opening Sections
The timing of per opening sections is from 9:00 am to 9:15 am.
There are 3 slots in per opening:
- 9:00 AM to 9:08 AM, it is called the order entry period. In this slot, you can place your buy and sell order.
If you have to modify your order or cancel the order, then you can also do it in this slot. This slot gets closed anytime between 9:07 AM and 9:08 AM minute.
2. From 9:08 AM to 9:12 AM, the process of order matching is done in this slot and the opening price of the normal section is extracted.
In this slot, you cannot modify or cancel your buy or sell order.
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3. From 9:12 AM to 9:15 AM, this is called the buffer period. In this slot, the per opening section has a smooth transaction in the normal trading section.
The Per-opening section is used to discover from the opening price of the normal section i.e. to find the opening price of the normal trading section.
And for price discovery, multilateral order matching is used i.e. the price at which more buy and sell orders match is called price equilibrium i.e. that will be the opening price of the price normal section.
Normal Section (Normal Trading Section or Continuous Trading Section)
A few years ago there was no per opening section then directly like normal trading section i.e. according to bilateral order matching the opening price of the normal trading section was decided.
And as you know in the bilateral order matching system, when the buyer and seller price match, then the transaction is completed automatically.
If more people are buying and selling then all the transactions are completed according to the priority of price and time.
Due to the bilateral matching system, the price of the opening section of the normal trading section was very volatile.
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To reduce this volatility, the pre-opening section was introduced, using the multilateral order matching system i.e. the price at which more orders are matched.
The stock exchanges tried to reduce the volatility of the opening price by taking the opening price of the normal trading section.
But in India, very few traders participate in the opening section. Most of the traders trade at the beginning of the normal trading section.
Therefore, despite the pre-opening section, some time is volatile after the start of the normal trading section in India.
IIM Ahmedabad Report
According to the study report of IIM Ahmedabad, despite the presence of per opening section, it takes 25 to 30 minutes for the volatility and volume to settle down after the start of the normal section.
Therefore, for the first few minutes of the normal trading section, you will have to trade thoughtfully.
After the end of the normal trading section i.e. after 3:30 PM, the time of 10 minutes is for the calculation of the closing price.
In these 10 minutes i.e. from 3:30 PM to 3:40 PM the closing price is calculated.
At 3:30 PM, when the normal trading section is closed, then the price of the share or index is, that price is not the closing price.
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The closing price of a share is the weighted average of the prices of the last half hour of that share i.e. from 3:00 PM to 3:30 PM.
And the indexes that are included in the index, such as Nifty and Sensex, their closing price is the average of the weighted price of their last half hour which is included in their consistent ie share index, which is called volume-weighted average price.
Usually, the closing price comes within 2 to 3 minutes i.e. from 3:32 PM to 3:33 PM.
After calculating the closing price, there is a post-closing section.
Post-Closing Section
The post-closing section is from 3:40 PM to 4:00 PM, that is, it is for only 20 minutes.
Whatever shares you buy or sell in this section, you get those shares only at the closing price of the normal trading section.
For example: Suppose the closing price of TATA Motors is Rs 500 then if you want to buy or sell shares of TATA Motors in the post-closing section then you can buy or sell the shares of TATA Motors at the price of Rs 500 in the post-closing section.
Per opening section and post-closing section are only in the cash market. Future and Options do not have pre and post-closing sections.
The timing of the Indian stock market is something like this
- Per opening section from 9:00 am to 9:15 am.
- Normal trading section ie continuous trading section from 9:15 am to 3:30 pm.
- Closing price calculation from 3:30 PM to 3:40 PM.
- Post-closing section from 3:40 PM to 4:00 PM.
Many times such situations arise that it is not possible for you to buy or sell shares in the timing of the stock market. At such times you can use After Market Order (AMO).
In the After Market Order (AMO), you can place your buy or sell order from after the stock market is closed till before the stock market is open.
At this time there is no actual trading, you can only place buy or sell orders.
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This means the stock market will remain closed, just you can place buy and sell orders for the next trading section.
Different brokers have different After Market Order timing. Some brokers do not provide the facility of After Market Order.
Muhurat Trading
There is also a special trading section in the stock market named Muhurat Trading. In Muhurat trading, the stock market remains open for about 1 hour on the day of Diwali.
The timing of Muhurat Trading stock exchanges tells a few days before Muhurat Trading. Usually, the Muhurat trading section is kept in the evening.
Per opening section from 9:00 am to 9:15 am.
Normal trading section or continuous trading section from 9:15 am to 3:30 pm.
Closing price calculation from 3:30 PM to 3:40 PM.
Post-closing section from 3:40 PM to 4:00 PM.
There is also a special trading section in the stock market named Muhurat Trading. In Muhurat trading, the stock market remains open for about 1 hour on the day of Diwali. The timing of Muhurat Trading stock exchanges tells a few days before Muhurat Trading. Usually, the Muhurat trading section is kept in the evening.