Sun outage forces revision of BSE, NSE trade timings from 4 March to 18 March

03 Mar 2008

Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange will revise trade timings from March 4 till March 18, as the sun's position may disrupt connectivity, causing difficulties in receiving satellite data.

Trading would start at 9.55 am and close at 4.15 pm local time as sun outage between March 4 and Mach 18 between 11.45 am to 12.25 pm may cause loss of connectivity for traders and investors, the exchanges said in a circular.

The two exchanges would stop trading between 11.45 am and 12.25 pm and resume trading from 12.30 pm, the circular added.

Both BSE and the use VSATs (Very Small Aperture Terminal) to connect terminals of traders. VSATs depend upon satellites for connectivity between the terminals or systems.

A sun outage is a distortion of geostationary satellite signals caused by interference from solar radiation. Generally, sun outages occur during February, March, September and October. A sun outage may cause partial degradation, increase error rate, or obstruct the signal.