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

You can trade outside regular market hours through pre-market and post-market sessions on NSE and BSE. Both sessions are available only for equity segment trading.

Pre-market session (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 (9:00 AM to 9:08 AM): You can place, modify, or cancel limit orders and market orders during the first 8 minutes
  • Order matching: The exchange closes the order collection window anytime between 9:07 AM and 9:08 AM, then matches orders and confirms trades
  • Price discovery: The session determines opening prices for securities

For detailed information about pre-market sessions, visit nseindia.com/products-services/equity-market-pre-open.

Post-market session (3:40 PM to 4:00 PM)

You can trade during the post-market session from 3:40 PM to 4:00 PM using only market orders.

Key features:

  • Only market orders allowed: You can place buy or sell orders in the equity delivery segment using the Longterm (CNC) product type
  • Closing price execution: Your market orders execute at the closing price (3:30 PM price)
  • Limited activity: The session typically has low trading volume

Example: If Reliance closes at ₹800 at 3:30 PM and you place a market order to buy Reliance between 3:40 PM and 4:00 PM, your order will execute at ₹800 (the closing price).

You can monitor stock movements during the post-market session by viewing market depth between 3:40 PM and 4:00 PM.

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