Leading stock exchange National Stock Exchange (NSE) has announced an extension in the trading hours for the equity derivatives segment, including futures and options (F&O), by 10 minutes.
As per the revised schedule, the normal market closing time of the equity derivatives has been changed to 3.40 PM from the current 3.30 PM. The change will come into effect from August 3, 2026.
In a circular issued by the NSE, the pre-open session open time and the pre-open session close time in the derivatives segment will remain unchanged, with trading beginning at 9 AM and the pre-open session ending at 9.08 AM through a system-driven random closure in the final minute.
The normal market session will continue to open at 9.15 AM. The trade modification window will also remain unchanged and will continue until 4.15 PM, according to the circular.
There will be no change in the methodology used for computing closing prices of derivative contracts.
The exchange said the volume-weighted average price used for close price calculation will continue to be based on trades executed during the last half hour of trading, which will has been extended from 3.10 PM to 3.40 PM.
The NSE exchange added that the functional changes arising from the implementation will be made available for testing during mock trading sessions. A separate circular detailing the mock sessions will be issued later.
The exchange will also broadcast a notification across NEAT trading terminals at the commencement of the Closing Auction Session in the equity segment, coinciding with the resetting of the operating price range for stock futures.
Following this adjustment, any outstanding orders that sit outside the newly revised price parameters will be systematically cancelled by the exchange in compliance with current regulatory frameworks.
The exchange further clarified that a security will lose its eligibility for the Closing Auction Session (CAS) if it is excluded from the equity derivatives segment on both national exchanges.
Under these circumstances, the closing price will be determined using the existing methodology, calculated using the volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of all trades executed during the final 30 minutes of the trading day.
However, as long as the security remains part of the equity derivatives segment on at least one exchange, it will continue to be eligible for CAS. Consequently, the exchange will cancel all unexecuted special orders, such as stop-loss and disclosed quantity orders, while any remaining pending orders breaching the updated price bands will similarly be purged, triggering an automated cancellation message to trading members.
