Special Live Trading Session; Why BSE, NSE Will Be Open On Saturday; Big Update By Zerodha On Buy/Sell

Stock market will be open for special live trading session on Saturday, May 18, 2024. Accordingly, brokerages have been informed about the special session, and leading broker Zerodha has intimated its investors related to their buying, selling, and settlements on that day. Zerodha warns its investors about chances of cancellation of their executed trades on May 18.

Both equity, equity derivatives, and futures & options markets will be open on the coming Saturday. This is part of BSE and NSE's compliance with Sebi's framework for a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Site (DRS) for stock Exchanges.

In its circular, NSE said, "Members are requested to note that Exchange shall be conducting a special live trading session with the intra-day switch over from Primary site to Disaster Recovery site on Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Equity and Equity Derivatives segments."

Some of the major guidelines for investors are that:

1. All securities (including those on which derivative products are available) will have a maximum price band of 5%. Securities already in the 2% or lower price band, shall continue to be available in the respective bands.

2. Price bands of 5% will be applicable on all close-ended Mutual Funds.

3. All futures contracts shall have a daily operating range of 5%.

4. No flexing of securities or futures contracts shall be applicable on that day.

5. The price band for Equity segment and Futures contracts which will be applicable at the start of the day at DC shall be applicable at DR too. Any changes in price bands of options contracts due to market factors up to the close time at the Primary site would be carried forward to the Disaster Recovery site.

Further, Zerodha on its website updated investors related to the transactions carried on their platform on May 18. This is intimated as per the instructions received from BSE and NSE. Here's what Zerodha said:

1. Any open orders not executed by the end of the first session will be cancelled and won't be carried forward to the next session.

2. Currency and Commodity (MCX) markets will stay closed.

3. Market orders in all segments will be blocked for the first two minutes of both sessions.

4. BTST (T1 sell) orders for T2T stocks will be blocked.

5. GTT orders will not be triggered.

6. MIS/CO (Intraday) orders will be blocked for both sessions.

7. AMO market orders will not be allowed.

8. AMO orders placed after markets on Friday, 17th May 2024 will be triggered on Saturday, 18th May 2024.

9. SIP orders on Kite will not be executed during the Special trading session. The scheduled SIP orders on 18th May will be placed on the next trading day.

10. Profits and credits received from equity trades or exiting positions in the derivatives segment (F&O and CDS) on 17th May 2024, will be available for withdrawal on 21st May 2024 by EOD.

11. The CDSL system to authorize stocks and mutual funds through eDIS won't be available from 10 AM to 11:15 AM.

12. Our support lines will be operational from 9 AM to 2 PM.

Zerodha said, "The Stock exchanges are switching trading sites from their primary sites to the disaster recovery (DR) site during a live trading session."

It added, "We have been informed by the Stock exchange through a circular, that there is a possibility of executed trades getting cancelled, during the transition phase of switching from the primary to the DR site."

Finally, Zerodha added, "Should such a situation occur, your closed positions during the first session will be reopened after which you will need to exit the position again in the second session."

Details of Live Trading on BSE, NSE:

For Capital Market: Trading Session-1 on the primary site:

- Morning Block Deal Window Session-1 open time: 08:45 hours

- Morning Block Deal Window Session-1 close time: 09:00 hours

- Pre-Open open time: 09:00 hours - Pre-Open close time: 09:08 hours

- Normal Market Open Time: 09:15 hours - Call Auction Illiquid session 1 open time: 09:30 hours

- Call Auction Illiquid session 1 close time: 09:30 hours - Normal Market close time: 10:00 hours.

There will be a gap of at least one hour 15 minutes between 10:00 hours to 11:15 hours before the second session of this special trade will begin.

Trading Session 2 will be on the Disaster Recovery site:

- Pre-Open open time: 11:15 hours

- Pre-Open close time: 11:23 hours

- Normal Market open time: 11:30 hours

- Call Auction Illiquid session 2 open time: 11:45 hours

- Call Auction Illiquid session 2 close time: 12:00 hours

- Normal Market close time:12:30 hours - Closing Session open time: 12:40 hours

- Closing Session close time: 12:50 hours - Trade Modification end time: 13:00 hours.

For Futures & Options (F&O) Segment:

Under the primary site, the normal market open time is 09:15 hours, and the close time is 10:00 hours as part of session 1.

For the DR site, which is the second session for F&O as well, the normal market open time is 11:30 hours, and the close time is 12:30 hours. The trade modification end time is 12:40 hours.

Why market will be open on May 18?

Market regulator Sebi has enabled Market Infrastructure Intermediaries (MIIs) to carry out test and live trading sessions for the switchover of functionality from the primary site to their Disaster Recovery site (DRS).

As per Zerodha's website, Disaster recovery sites are backup trading venues. If there are disruptions or critical failures to the systems of key MIIs like exchanges, then trading and operations are shifted to the disaster recovery site to ensure seamless continuity of trading and other activities.

It added, that this helps identify any weaknesses or issues in the recovery process and allows the company to make improvements and ensure they can quickly get back up and running in case of a real disaster.