Changes to Stock Market Hours from Monday, August 3, 2026

For investors who take delivery or hold positional trades in cash:

• Non-F&O stocks: No practical change for you. You can trade until 3:30 PM, as before.

• F&O stocks: Regular trading will now end at 3:15 PM. You can still buy or sell at the official closing price by participating in the Closing Auction Session from 3:15 PM to 3:35 PM, depending on your broker and the order type you choose.

3. F&O Traders (Futures and Options)

Derivatives traders now have an extra 10 minutes to manage positions:

• F&O contracts will now trade until 3:40 PM rather than 3:30 PM.

• This extension will allow traders the opportunity to adjust or hedge their positions based on the final cash market closing price, which will be set during the auction.

If you hold stock futures or options, this extension has provided you more time to react to end-of-day price movements, which is valuable after particularly volatile trading days or during index rebalancing.

4. Mutual fund investors and portfolio trackers

The official close impacts:

• Mutual fund NAVs (calculated using closing prices).

• Portfolio valuations provided by brokers and apps.

• Collateral valuations for margin trading.

Currently, with the auction-based close, there will be times when the last traded price at 3:15 PM will be different from the official closing price for the F&O stocks, which will be available at 3:35 PM. In the long run, we should see tighter NAVs and portfolio valuations, but for the first few weeks, some investors may see discrepancies between the “live” P&L at 3:15 PM and the P&L at official close.

Practical tips for the trader and investor

• Check with your broker: Some trading apps may fail to account for the new timings and order types linked to closing auctions. Please check how your broker will implement CAS and what intraday cut-offs will be.

• Change your exit strategy: Intraday traders of F&O Stocks should exit the positions by 3:10 PM. The system will frame an auto square-off if you assume you can take your trades till 3:30 PM.

• Make use of remaining 10 minutes in F&O: Derivatives traders can treat the window of 3:30 PM to 3:40 PM as an opportunity to close or hedge their positions with the last cash close.

• Do not worry about the gap: Initially, you may notice a gap between the last traded price and the official closing price of F&O stocks. This is an early adoption of the new system, and is not a bug.

Beginning Monday, August 3, 2026, some of the operational changes of the Indian Stock Market will continue to impact its global position. Regular trading hours of F&O Stocks will close at 3:15 PM. A new Closing Auction Session will run until 3:35 PM, followed by a 3:40 PM cut-off for Derivatives. Non-F&O Stocks will continue trading until 3:30 PM.

Traders are required to adjust their end-of-day routines: exit intraday positions sooner, take advantage of the extended F&O window for hedging, and accept that the official close will now be determined by an auction, rather than the last minutes of a trading. Long-term investors are expected to benefit the most from these changes, as they will produce more reliable closing prices and better portfolio valuations.