Sebi plans to extend trading hours

To align the domestic bourses with international markets

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) today, 19 March 2009, proposed to extend trading hours in exchanges to align the domestic bourses with international markets and asked various stakeholders for their opinion by 10 April 2009.

Among the advantages noted by the regulator are incorporating information flowing from different time zones, markets becoming efficient with quick assimilation of data, attracting global trading interest and enabling participants to take longer positions.

In India, the equity cash market and exchange-traded derivatives market is open between 9:55 IST to 15:30 IST. While exchange-traded currency derivatives market operates from 9:00 IST to 17:00 IST, exchange-traded commodity futures market operates from 8:00 IST till 23:30 IST.