Special Live Trading Session: Stock Market Will Be Open On Saturday; Date, Time, Buy/Sell Guide

Yet another Saturday, when the stock market will be open for trading. This will be on May 18, 2024, as part of BSE and NSE's compliance with Sebi's framework for a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Site (DRS) for stock Exchanges. Unlike regular trading days, buying and selling on May 18 will be different! Equities, futures and options will be available for trading on the said Saturday.

In its circular, NSE said, "Members are requested to note that Exchange shall be conducting a special live trading session with the intra-day switch over from Primary site to Disaster Recovery site on Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Equity and Equity Derivatives segments."

Notably, market regulator Sebi has enabled Market Infrastructure Intermediaries (MIIs) to carry out test and live trading sessions for the switchover of functionality from the primary site to their Disaster Recovery site (DRS).

Details of Live Trading on BSE, NSE:

The trading session on May 18 will be carried out in two parts.

For Capital Market...

Trading Session-1 on the primary site:

- Morning Block Deal Window Session-1 open time: 08:45 hours

- Morning Block Deal Window Session-1 close time: 09:00 hours

- Pre-Open open time: 09:00 hours

- Pre-Open close time: 09:08 hours

- Normal Market Open Time: 09:15 hours

- Call Auction Illiquid session 1 open time: 09:30 hours

- Call Auction Illiquid session 1 close time: 09:30 hours

- Normal Market close time: 10:00 hours.

There will be a gap of at least one hour 15 minutes between 10:00 hours to 11:15 hours before the second session of this special trade will begin.

Trading Session 2 will be on the Disaster Recovery site:

- Pre-Open open time: 11:15 hours

- Pre-Open close time: 11:23 hours

- Normal Market open time: 11:30 hours

- Call Auction Illiquid session 2 open time: 11:45 hours

- Call Auction Illiquid session 2 close time: 12:00 hours

- Normal Market close time:12:30 hours

- Closing Session open time: 12:40 hours

- Closing Session close time: 12:50 hours

- Trade Modification end time: 13:00 hours.

For Futures & Options (F&O) Segment:

Under the primary site, the normal market open time is 09:15 hours, and the close time is 10:00 hours as part of session 1.

For the DR site, which is the second session for F&O as well, the normal market open time is 11:30 hours, and the close time is 12:30 hours. The trade modification end time is 12:40 hours.

Here are the guidelines for trading on May 18 for investors:

Members may note the following changes in price bands / daily operating range (DPR) applicable for the Special Live Trading Session on May 18, 2024:

- All securities (including those on which derivative products are available) will have a maximum price band of 5%. Securities already in the 2% or lower price band, shall continue to be available in the respective bands.

- Price bands of 5% will be applicable on all close-ended Mutual Funds.

- All futures contracts shall have a daily operating range of 5%.

- No flexing of securities or futures contracts shall be applicable on that day.

- The price band for Equity segment and Futures contracts which will be applicable at the start of the day at DC shall be applicable at DR too. Any changes in price bands of options contracts due to market factors up to the close time at the Primary site would be carried forward to the Disaster Recovery site.

"All the above changes would be applicable for the Special Session only. Securities and Futures contracts will revert to the regular price band structure / DPR% / dummy bands & flexing mechanism from the next trade date," NSE said.

NSE requested investors to note that this is being conducted based on specific discussions with SEBI and their Technical Advisory Committee to assess the preparedness of MIIs to handle any unforeseen event impacting their operations and to restore operations from the DR Site within the stipulated Recovery Time Objective in such event.

Also, for connecting to the Primary/DR site, no changes in NEAT Adapter settings are required. Further, NSE guided that the closing price for the day shall be arrived at as per the existing rules for a normal trading day.

In case multiple trading sessions are conducted during the day for any reason, wherein the market is
closed and re-opened, members are advised to refer to indicative close prices disseminated during the last
half an hour of the final session only, NSE said.

Moreover, all the outstanding orders shall be purged before the start of trading from the DR site. Members using NNF software should clear the outstanding orders of session 1 in their systems before trading from the DR site.

Lastly, NSE said, "All trades executed shall result in settlement obligations. The risk management, clearing and settlement-related details with respect to the trading activity of May 18, 2024, shall be communicated
separately by the respective clearing corporations"

This will be the third special trading session conducted by BSE and NSE in 2024 so far.The first live special session of the year took place on January 20 followed by March 2, 2024.