Pre-Market Trading hours

The pre-market trading session is held between 9:00 a.m. and 9:15 a.m. IST on the BSE and NSE for the Equity Cash Segment. There is no pre-trading or pre-opening session for Equity Derivatives (Futures and Options trading).

The pre-opening session determines the opening price or ideal price for a stock for the normal trading session. The pre-opening session lasts for 15 minutes, i.e. from 9:00 to 9:15 in the morning. You can trade stocks directly through the exchanges. 

The purpose of this session is to collect all buy and sell orders from traders before the regular market opens, and then determine a single “opening price” — known as the equilibrium price — based on demand and supply. Read More - IPO Listing Time/Special Pre-Open Session

Pre-Open Session Activities:

1. Order Entry - First 8 Minutes (From 9:00 AM to 9:08 AM):

• Order placement for buying and selling, modification and cancellation is allowed for 8 minutes. You can place limit orders or market orders.
• The order collection window closes at any time randomly between 9:07 a.m. and 9:08 a.m. by the system.

2. Order Matching - Next 4 Minutes (From 9:08 AM to 9:12 AM):

• Order matching is done during this time.
• The placed orders get matched, and trades get confirmed. After the order collection window closes, orders cannot be placed, modified, or cancelled.
• The order matching period starts immediately after the completion of the order entry period.

The order matching happens in the following sequence:

• Limit orders are matched with Limit orders
• Residual Limit orders are matched with Market orders
• Market orders are matched with market orders

3. Next 3 Minutes (From 9:12 AM to 9:15 AM):

• The next three minutes are a buffer period for switching from the pre-open session to the regular market.

Pre-Open Trading Session Price Determination

Let's understand how pricing occurs in the pre-trading session:

Equilibrium Price Determination:

Assume that exchanges have received bids for a particular share XYZ at different prices between 9:00 a.m. and 9:15 a.m. Based on the principle of the demand-supply mechanism, the exchange will arrive at the equilibrium price – the price at which the maximum number of shares can be bought/sold. In the example below, the opening price will be Rs 105, where a maximum of 27,500 shares can be traded.