Is the stock market open today?
The answer below is worked out in your browser, right now, in Indian Standard Time, for the NSE equity and equity-derivative (F&O) segments. It uses the published exchange holiday calendar, so it says why the market is open or closed, not just whether.
Checking the clock…
The answer is worked out in your browser from your device clock converted to IST, so it is correct the moment you load the page. The NSE equity and F&O market trades continuously from 09:15 to 15:30 IST, Monday to Friday, except on published exchange holidays.
| Session | Timing (IST) | Segment | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-open call auction | 09:00 – 09:08 | Equity cash | Orders are collected and the opening price is discovered. Continuous trading has not started. |
| Continuous trading | 09:15 – 15:30 | Equity cash + equity derivatives (F&O) | The normal market. This is the window people mean when they ask whether the market is open. |
| Closing session | 15:40 – 16:00 | Equity cash | A short post-close window that trades at the closing price. Continuous trading is already over. |
The short answer
The NSE equity and F&O market is open for continuous trading from 9:15 am to 3:30 pm IST, Monday to Friday. It is closed on Saturdays, Sundays and the exchange's published trading holidays. A pre-open call auction runs 9:00–9:08 am, and an equity closing session runs 3:40–4:00 pm.
How the answer is determined
There are only three questions, asked in order. The first two decide whether the exchange trades at all today; the third decides which part of the day you are in.
- Is it a Saturday or a Sunday?If yes, the equity and F&O segments are shut all day.
- Is the date on the NSE trading-holiday list for the year? That list is published in advance by circular; it does not follow a rule you can derive, which is why the date has to be looked up.
- Which session window does the clock fall in? Continuous trading is 09:15 to 15:30 IST. Before and after that, the market is closed even on a trading day.
Worked example 1 — a holiday
Take Friday 26 June 2026. It is not a weekend, so question 1 passes. Question 2 finds it on the 2026 trading-holiday list as Muharram (NSE/CMTR/71775 (12 Dec 2025)), so the market is closed for the whole day and question 3 never gets asked. The next trading session is Monday 29 June 2026 at 09:15 IST — 27 and 28 June are a Saturday and a Sunday, so the calendar steps over three consecutive non-trading days.
Worked example 2 — an open day, five minutes after the close
Take Monday 22 June 2026 at 15:35 IST. It is not a weekend and it is not on the holiday list, so it is a normal trading day. But continuous trading ended at 15:30, and the equity closing session does not begin until 15:40. The honest answer at that exact minute is closed — with ten minutes of nothing, then a twenty-minute closing session that trades only at the closing price.
Edge cases that trip people up
The pre-open session is not the market being open
Between 09:00 and 09:08 IST the exchange collects orders and works out the opening price. Order books move, screens light up, and nothing has actually traded continuously yet. This page counts that window as closed and labels it, rather than showing a green light eight minutes early.
15:30 is a hard edge, not a rounding
At 15:29 the market is open; at 15:30:00 it is not. The closing session that follows at 15:40 is a separate equity-only window at a fixed price — it is not an extension of normal trading.
Weekends are not always closed
The exchange occasionally runs a live weekend session. The calendar this page reads contains one: a special live session held on Sunday 1 February 2026under its own circular. On such a date the status above follows that circular's own timings rather than the weekend rule.
Muhurat trading is announced separately
The short symbolic Diwali session is confirmed by its own circular each year, usually close to the date, and its timing is not part of the annual holiday list. Where that circular is not yet in the calendar data, this page shows nothing for it rather than guessing an hour.
A trading holiday and a settlement holiday are different things
The exchange can be open while the clearing corporation is not, and a settlement can roll to a later day for reasons that never close the market. That is a separate question — the settlement calculator answers it.
Other segments keep their own hours
This page covers the NSE equity cash and equity-derivative segments only. Currency and commodity segments run longer or different sessions, and unscheduled halts are announced live by the exchange and cannot appear in a published calendar.
Where this appears in the NISM syllabus
Trading hours, the pre-open call auction and the exchange holiday calendar are "trading mechanism" topics rather than product knowledge, and they turn up early in NISM's securities-market certification workbooks — for example the equity-derivatives and research-analyst series, which set out how a trading session is structured before going near instruments. The examinable facts are the ones on this page: that continuous trading runs 09:15–15:30 IST, that a pre-open call auction precedes it, and that trading holidays are published in advance by the exchange rather than following any date rule.
NISM revises its workbooks and syllabus outlines periodically, so confirm the current unit and chapter against the workbook edition for your exam sitting on the NISM website. Nothing on this page is a substitute for the official study material.
Related tools
NSE Market Calendar 2026
Every trading holiday for the year with its date, day and source circular, plus special sessions.
Open →NSE Market Holidays
The holiday list with the next closed day highlighted, and answers to the common holiday questions.
Open →T+1 Settlement Date Calculator
When a cash-market trade settles once weekends and exchange holidays are stepped over.
Open →Trade Cost & Breakeven Calculator
Estimate intraday and delivery brokerage, statutory charges and the breakeven price.
Open →NiftyScanner provides general educational information and user-input mathematical utilities. It does not provide personalised investment advice, research recommendations, trade calls, price targets or suitability assessments. Market-calendar, settlement and transaction-cost information may change and should be verified against current official exchange, clearing, broker, depository and tax records. Trading and investing involve risk; you remain responsible for your own decisions and should seek appropriately qualified professional advice where needed.