Leading stock exchange NSE has decided to extend the trading hours for interest rate derivatives contracts till 5 pm from Thursday onwards.

At present, the contracts are traded between 9 am and 3:30 pm.

The change in timing is aimed at converging it with underlying market timings, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) said in a circular.

"Interest Rate Derivative contracts for the expiry month February 2023 will be available for trading till 5:00 pm on expiry day i.e. February 23, 2023. There shall be no change in trading hours for other interest rate derivative contracts," it added.

Further, all existing expiry contracts with expiry day beyond February 23, 2023 and all new expiration contracts introduced thereafter would be made available for trading till 5 pm on expiry day.

The exchange said there will be no change in the final settlement price computation mechanism. This comes amid media reports that NSE is looking to extend the trading hours in the equity segment till 5 pm.

This is not the first time discussion over extended trading hours has created a buzz.

In January, Sebi came out with a standard operating procedure (SOP) asking stock exchanges to inform about trading disruptions to stakeholders within 15 minutes of such occurrences and extending the trading time by one-and-a-half hours in certain outage conditions.

In 2018, the markets regulator allowed stock exchanges to set their trading hours in the equity derivatives segment between 9 am and 11:55 pm.

This was similar to the trading hours for commodity derivatives segment which are presently fixed between 10 am and 11:55 pm.

Currently, the domestic stock markets are open between 9:15 am and 3:30 pm. Market experts believe that longer trading hours in the Indian stock markets can potentially decrease the overnight risk arising from global information flow.

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