What are pre-market and post-market sessions on NSE & BSE?

Pre-open market session:

Pre-open session was introduced to minimise the volatility and to discover the opening prices of securities during the market opening every day and is only allowed for the equity segment. It is conducted between 9:00 AM to 9:15 AM on NSE and BSE.

During the pre-market session for the first 8 minutes, i.e. between 9:00 AM and 9:08 AM, orders are collected, modified, or cancelled by the exchange. Clients can place limit orders or market orders during the order collection window in the pre-market session. The order collection window can close at any time between 9:07 AM and 9:08 AM. The orders placed are matched, and trades are confirmed after the order collection window closes. To know more about the pre-open sessions, visit nseindia.com/products-services/equity-market-pre-open.

Post-closing session:

The post-market or closing session is open from 3:40 PM to 4:00 PM, and only market orders are allowed. Similar to pre-market orders, post-market orders are allowed only for the equity segment. In the post-closing session, clients can place buy or sell orders in the equity delivery segment using the CNC product code at the market price. If the order is placed as a market order, it will be placed on the exchange at a closing price.

Example scenario

If the closing price of Reliance at 3:30 PM is ₹ 800 and a market order is placed to buy Reliance between 3:40 PM and 4:00 PM, the order will be placed at  ₹ 800, i.e. the closing price.

The post-market session is not very active, and the movement of stocks can be seen by opening the market depth from 3:40 PM to 4:00 PM. To learn more, see What is market depth and how to view it?