On Saturday, March 2, 2024, NSE & BSE will be conducting special live trading sessions in the equity & F&O segments.
There will be two sessions; the first from the primary and the second from the disaster recovery site of the exchanges. The timing for these sessions will be as follows;
Trading session from primary site:
| Trading Sessions | Start Time | End Time |
|---|---|---|
| Live trading from the Primary Site | 9:15 AM | 10 AM |
| Live trading from the DR Site | 11:30 AM | 12:30 PM |
*Pre-Open for the first session is from 9:00 AM to 9:08 AM
*Pre-Open for the second session is from 11:15 AM to 11:23 AM and the closing session will be from 12:40 PM to 12:50 PM
*Random closure in the last one minute
What’s the purpose of this session?
To ensure that trading can continue without any problems if something were to go wrong in the main trading venues. SEBI requires Market Infrastructure Intermediaries to perform a switchover to their Disaster Recovery site as part of the business continuity plan.
What is a disaster recovery site?
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.
A disaster recovery site is a backup location where a company stores its important data and systems. It’s like having a spare office or computer system that can be used if the main one gets damaged or stops working.
DR drills, or disaster recovery drills, are conducted to practice and test the company’s ability to recover from a major problem or disaster. It’s like doing a fire drill to practice what to do in case of a fire.
During a DR drill, the company simulates a disaster scenario and goes through the steps of moving to the backup site and restoring the systems.
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.
A few things to keep note of:
During this session, all securities will have upper and lower circuit limits of 5%, including stocks that are traded in the F&O segment. Securities that have a 2% upper and lower circuit limits will continue to have a 2% limit.
These circuit limits are applicable for the day and will be carried from one session to the next.
All futures contracts will have an operating range of 5%.
Normally, stocks that trade in the F&O segment and futures contracts have flexible price bands, meaning if the circuit limit is hit, it is relaxed further, allowing trading to continue. This will not be applicable during this session.
For more details, you can check this bulletin:
