SEBI proposes extension of trading hours at bourses

19 March 2009

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has proposed an extension of trading hours of stock exchanges to align the domestic bourses with international markets.

''With the increased integration of the global markets, information originating from different countries has a bearing on Indian securities market,'' SEBI said in a statement.

Trading on Asia Pacific bourses commences a little ahead of the Indian markets while the European and American markets open much later.

Extending the trade timings may enable the domestic market participants to take advantage of global information flows.

''Some of the exchanges in these countries have adopted longer trading hours, sometimes even extending up to 23 hours. This has facilitated market participants in these countries to hedge their risk that might arise due to global information flow,'' SEBI said.

''In a world where different exchanges are competing with each other to increase participation, it is imperative that the Indian markets align themselves to global markets to attract such trading interest. Extension of market hours would enable market participants to execute trading strategies in Indian markets based on  information flowing in, which otherwise would have been executed outside India.''