Both the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) have announced a special live trading session in the equity and futures & options segments on March 2, 2024. This unusual move, as markets typically close on Saturdays, aims to test the market’s disaster recovery system preparedness for emergencies.
The special session will span a few hours with a 75-minute break in between and will be split into two phases for transitioning between the primary site and the disaster recovery site.
The first session will commence at the usual time with an eight-minute pre-open session from 9:00 to 9:08 am, followed by regular trading from 9:15 am to 10:00 am. This initial trading session will occur from the primary site or the official websites of BSE and NSE.
Following the first session, the market will halt for 75 minutes. The second trading phase will then begin with a pre-open session from 11:15 am to 11:23 am, followed by regular trading from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm, conducted from the disaster recovery (DR) site after transitioning from the primary site.
Additionally, both exchanges will include post-closing sessions and a morning block deal window, occurring for 15 minutes from 08:45 to 9:00 am.
This special trading session aims to assess the readiness of Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs) to handle unforeseen events, such as system outages, and to evaluate their ability to restore operations from the disaster recovery site, in line with SEBI’s framework for business continuity.
During this session, all securities, including those in the Future and Options (F&O) segment, will have upper and lower circuit limits of five percent, while those with a two percent limit will maintain their existing circuit limit, aimed at preventing extreme volatility.
Moreover, the exchanges have announced that the price bands of 5 percent will apply to all close-ended mutual funds, and all futures contracts will have a daily operating range of 5 percent.
As March 2 is a settlement holiday, purchases made on March 1 will be settled on March 4. The pay-in/pay-out transactions for the trade date March 1 and March 2 will also be settled on March 4, 2024, at 8:30 am, according to the exchange.
In contrast, the currency and commodity markets will follow their usual practice and remain closed on Saturday, March 2.
