Below is the screenshot of the pre-open market order of Indian Hotels. Why the bidding price is higher than the offer price?
In normal markets, a trade occurs whenever a buy order and a sell order match each other at a price during the hours when the market is open.
What happens in Call Auction market?
In a Call Auction market, orders are gathered for execution at predetermined times when the market is called. At the call, all buy orders are aggregated into a downward sloping demand function and all sell orders are aggregated in an upward sloping supply function.
The point where the intersection of buy and sell curve happens - That will be the equilibrium price where the order matching happens.
You can check the following link by BSE to understand this concept in detail: BSEINDIA