BSE-NSE Special live trading session: The National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) have jointly announced a special live trading session slated for today, March 2, 2024. This extraordinary session aims to test the efficacy of the market's disaster recovery system, ensuring its robustness in the face of potential emergencies. Markets typically observe closure on Saturdays.

The blue-chip Nifty 50 closed 355.95 points higher at 22,338.75 and the broader BSE Sensex closed 1,245.05 points higher at 73,745.35 on Friday, March 1, 2024.

Today's special session is scheduled to span several hours, punctuated by a 75-minute hiatus. The trading day will be segmented into two phases, facilitating the transition from the primary site to the disaster recovery site—a crucial element in evaluating the market's resilience.

The initial session will commence at the usual trading hours, preceded by an eight-minute pre-open window from 9:00 am to 9:08 am, followed by regular trading activity spanning 45 minutes until 10:00 am. This phase will operate from the primary site or the official websites of both BSE and NSE.

Following the initial phase, the market will temporarily close for 75 minutes. Subsequently, the second trading phase will kick off with another pre-open session from 11:15 am to 11:23 am, leading into an hour-long trading period from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm. This latter phase will transition to trading from the disaster recovery (DR) site, focussing on the equity and equity derivatives segments.

Additionally, beyond the pre-open and regular trading sessions, both exchanges will facilitate post-closing sessions, alongside a dedicated morning block deal window spanning 15 minutes from 08:45 am to 9:00 am.

This special trading session underscores the imperative of assessing the readiness of Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs) to navigate unforeseen disruptions, such as system outages. It aligns with SEBI's framework for business continuity, aimed at evaluating MIIs' ability to seamlessly restore operations from disaster recovery sites.

During the session, all securities, including those in the Futures and Options (F&O) segment, will adhere to upper and lower circuit limits of five per cent. Securities currently governed by a two per cent limit will maintain their existing circuit parameters, mitigating potential volatility during the special live trading session.

Further, the exchange has stipulated that a five per cent price band will apply to all closed-end mutual funds, while futures contracts will adhere to a daily operating range of five per cent.

Given the session's occurrence on a settlement holiday, transactions executed on March 1 will settle on March 4. Specifically, pay-in/pay-out transactions for both March 1 and March 2 trade dates will be settled on March 4, 2024, commencing at 8:30 am.

While the equity markets gear up for this special session, currency and commodity markets will remain closed on Saturday, March 2, in adherence to their regular schedule.