Indian Stock Markets is set to witness new trading session timings from Monday (August 3) after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the National
Stock Exchange (NSE) have announced fundamentally changing how closing prices are determined. The changes include a new Closing Auction Session (CAS) for F&O-eligible stocks, extended trading hours for the derivatives segment and revised pre-open market timings. SEBI has introduced the Closing Auction Session for F&O-eligible (Category I) stocks in the equity cash segment with the aim of improving price discovery and market efficiency. Closing Auction Session is intended to ensure a fair and transparent closing price through an auction mechanism, improve execution efficiency by aggregating liquidity, provide equal access to all investors, reduce tracking errors for passive funds and align India's market structure with global best practices, SEBI said. For F&O-eligible stocks, the regular trading session will continue until 3:15 pm, followed by a transition period from 3:15 pm to 3:20 pm. Market regulator has Introduced the Closing Auction for F&O Stocks, Extends Derivatives TradingThe Closing Auction Session will begin with CAS Order Entry I from 3:20 pm to 3:25 pm, followed by CAS Order Entry II from 3:25 pm to 3:30 pm. Investors will not be allowed to modify or cancel market orders, while the auction will conclude randomly within the final two minutes. Order matching will take place between 3:30 pm and 3:35 pm, Closing Auction Session will become the official closing price for F&O-eligible stocks. Further, the trading hours for non-F&O equity cash stocks will remain unchanged, with markets continuing to close at 3:30 pm. F&O trading has been extended by 10 minutes and will now continue until 3:40 pm. SEBI has also revised the pre-open session with the order entry window will now run from 9:00 am to 9:07 am, while order matching will take place between 9:07 am and 9:15 am. Regular trading will continue to begin at 9:15 am.
