You can trade outside regular market hours through pre-market and post-market sessions on NSE and BSE.
Pre-market session for equity (9:00 AM to 9:15 AM)
The pre-market session helps minimise volatility and discover opening prices of securities. You can participate in this session between 9:00 AM and 9:15 AM on both NSE and BSE.
How it works:
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Order collection and entry.
• 9:00 AM to 9:05 AM: You can place, modify, or cancel both market and limit orders.
• 9:05 AM to 9:10 AM: You can place, modify, or cancel only limit orders. The system rejects any new market orders placed during this phase.
• Random closure: The order entry window closes randomly between 9:08 AM and 9:10 AM. -
Order matching and price discovery (9:10 AM to 9:12 AM).
The exchange matches orders and confirms trades at the single discovered opening price. -
Transition period (9:12 AM to 9:15 AM).
The buffer serves as a transition period before regular trading starts at 9:15 AM.
For detailed information about pre-market sessions, visit nseindia.com/products-services/equity-market-pre-open.
Pre-open session for futures (9:00 AM to 9:15 AM)
The pre-market session helps minimise volatility and discover opening prices of securities. You can participate in this session between 9:00 AM and 9:15 AM on both NSE and BSE.
How it works:
-
Order collection and entry.
• 9:00 AM to 9:05 AM: You can place, modify, or cancel both market and limit orders.
• 9:05 AM to 9:10 AM: You can place, modify, or cancel only limit orders. The system rejects any new market orders placed during this phase.
• Random closure: The order entry window closes randomly between 9:08 AM and 9:10 AM. -
Order matching and price discovery (9:10 AM to 9:12 AM).
The exchange matches orders and confirms trades at the single discovered opening price. -
Transition period (9:12 AM to 9:15 AM).
The buffer serves as a transition period before regular trading starts at 9:15 AM.
The pre-open session applies to current-month futures on both stocks and indices. During the last five trading days before expiry, the session also includes next-month futures. If an underlying stock has a corporate action, such as a merger or demerger, on a particular day, its futures skip the pre-open session that day.
Order matching priority in the pre-open session
Previously, limit orders had priority over market orders during pre-open matching. Effective 7 September 2026, market orders have priority over limit orders during the matching process.
The system matches trades in this order:
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Market orders match:
Market orders match first with other market orders based on the time they were placed.
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Market matches with limit:
Remaining market orders match with eligible limit orders. Better-priced limit orders get priority, and where the price is the same, the earlier order gets priority.
- Limit matches with limit: Remaining limit orders match with one another using price-and-time priority.
All matched trades execute at the single discovered opening price (equilibrium price).
How the futures opening price is determined
The system determines the opening (equilibrium) price at the point where maximum buy and sell quantities match, where demand and supply meet most efficiently. If multiple prices qualify, the system selects the price with the least order imbalance (fewest unmatched orders). If a tie still exists, the system chooses the price closest to the previous day's closing price. If no trades occur during the pre-open session, the first trade in the normal session sets the opening price.
Example: During pre-open, buyers place orders for 500 contracts of Nifty futures at ₹25,500 and sellers also place orders for 500 contracts at ₹25,500. The system matches them at this price, and ₹25,500 becomes the day's opening price.
Limit orders that remain unmatched carry over to the normal market session with the same timestamp. The system converts market orders to limit orders at the discovered opening price and moves them to the normal session. If the system discovers no equilibrium price, market orders move at the base price (the previous day's closing price).
Closing Auction Session for F&O stocks (3:15 PM to 3:30 PM)
SEBI has introduced the Closing Auction Session (CAS) for F&O stocks, effective 3 August 2026. CAS replaces the Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) method of calculating closing prices for F&O stocks. In Phase 1, CAS applies only to stocks in the F&O segment. All other stocks continue to use the VWAP method.
For F&O stocks, continuous trading now stops at 3:15 PM:
- Regular trading (3:00 PM to 3:15 PM): Trading continues normally. The exchange simultaneously calculates VWAP for these 15 minutes, which becomes the reference price for the auction.
- Transition period (3:15 PM to 3:20 PM): Trading stops for F&O stocks, and no new orders are accepted. F&O contracts on these stocks continue to trade normally until 3:40 PM. The exchange carries forward existing open orders, except for stop loss orders, iceberg orders, and orders outside the 3% band on either side of the reference price.
- Order Entry Session I (3:20 PM to 3:25 PM): You can place, modify, or cancel both market and limit orders. The exchange shares an indicative price, total buy and sell quantities, and order imbalance.
- Order Entry Session II (3:25 PM to 3:30 PM): You can only place, modify, or cancel limit orders. You cannot place, modify, or cancel market orders. This session closes randomly between 3:28 PM and 3:30 PM to avoid last-minute order flooding. Once it closes, the exchange matches all orders at the price where the maximum number of trades can happen, and that becomes the official closing price.
Post-market session (3:50 PM to 4:00 PM)
You can trade during the post-market session from 3:50 PM to 4:00 PM using only market orders:
- Only market orders are allowed: You can place buy or sell orders in the equity delivery segment using the Longterm (CNC) or Margin Trading Facility (MTF) product type.
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Closing price execution: Your market orders execute at the closing price.
Example: If Reliance closes at ₹800 at 3:30 PM and you place a market order to buy Reliance between 3:50 PM and 4:00 PM, your order executes at ₹800 (the closing price).
A stock's closing price is determined by calculating the weighted average of all the trade prices between 3:00 PM and 3:30 PM for a non-F&O stock. The F&O stock's closing price is determined by the Closing Auction Session (CAS).
There will be no price movement between 3:50 PM and 4:00 PM, and all the trades will get executed at the closing price.