Stock market holiday cancelled; traders working this Saturday – here’s why | India Business News – Times of India

Stock market holiday: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) have cancelled the market holiday scheduled for this Saturday. Instead, they will hold a special live trading session to test preparedness for unexpected disasters.
According to ET, this decision follows the guidelines of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for market infrastructure intermediaries, underscoring the significance of business continuity planning.
The special session, scheduled for tomorrow, involves an important intra-day switch from the primary trading site to the disaster recovery site. This switch aims to ensure that trading activities remain uninterrupted and data remains secure, particularly in the event of any adverse occurrences affecting the main trading centre in Mumbai.The BSE has said that the session was initiated following specific discussions with SEBI and its Technical Advisory Committee. The objective is to evaluate the preparedness of market infrastructure intermediaries (MIIs) to handle unforeseen events impacting their operations and to restore operations from the Disaster Recovery (DR) Site within the stipulated Recovery Time Objective.
The trading dynamics during this special session are expected to differ due to its truncated nature, limiting the time available for traders to adapt. Market participants expect reduced volatility during the session.
Key details of the special trading session on Saturday:
Saturday’s special trading session will consist of two parts, with regular activities such as trading, settlement, and billing occurring within a shorter time frame for the equity and equity derivatives segment.
The pre-open session on both the NSE and BSE kicks off at 9 AM, with normal trading running from 9:15 AM to 10 AM.
At the disaster recovery site, the pre-opening session begins at 11:15 AM, followed by regular trading at 11:30 AM, concluding at 12:30 PM.

During this special session, a maximum price band of 5% is set for all stocks, including those in the F&O segment. Securities with a 2% upper and lower circuit limit will maintain this 2% limit. Geojit Financial was quoted saying that any pending orders from the first session will be cleared before the start of the second session.
It’s important to note that January 20 is a settlement holiday, meaning credits from the F&O segment and intra-day profits from January 19 won’t be available for trading during this session. Additionally, fund withdrawal requests made on Saturday will not be processed.
This isn’t the first time stock markets have operated on the weekend, with similar instances occurring during the 2020 Budget and in 2016 and 2017 when special sessions from the disaster recovery site were conducted.