Market Trading Hours Not To Be Extended

The proposal to extend market trading timings has been turned down by the regulator, NSE chief executive Ashishkumar Chauhan said during a post earnings call on Monday.

"Currently there is no plan to increase the timings (for trading) as SEBI has returned back the application which we had provided because the stock brokers seemed to have not given the feedback that SEBI wanted," Chauhan said.

As of now, the proposal to extend market trade timings is shelved, the NSE CEO said. However, not all stock brokers have been inclined to support this, owing to additional costs and technological requirements, according to Chauhan.

India's largest stock exchange filed a plea with SEBI to keep the derivatives market open for three extra hours between 6 pm and 9 pm. In the later stages, the timing was planned to increased to 11:30 pm after a break from the closure of the regular session.

The extension of the trading house in the cash segment was considered to help market participants act on global news flows after the usual trading hours.

According to reports, the Association of National Exchange Members of India, earlier this year, had given its in-principle approval to the proposal of extending trading hours for index futures.

NSE had submitted its proposal to SEBI for its approval last year, after carrying out consultations with various trading members serving different categories of investors across regions, industry associations, and other stakeholders on the proposal for more than nine months, Chauhan told PTI earlier.

He said the primary objective for the proposal came from the trading community.