The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has announced that it will begin a pre-open session in the equity derivatives (F&O) segment starting Monday, December 8, 2025.
This session, lasting 15 minutes from 9:00 am to 9:15 am, will adopt a call-auction mechanism and be divided into three phases:
- Order Entry (9:00 am–9:08 am): Traders will be able to place, modify or cancel orders. A random closure of order entry may occur between the 7th and 8th minute.
- Order Matching & Trade Confirmation (9:08 am–9:12 am): At this stage, the system will determine an equilibrium opening price and match orders accordingly.
- Buffer Period (9:12 am–9:15 am): A transition window between the pre-open and the regular trading session.
The new pre-open session in the F&O segment will apply to current-month futures on single stocks and indices. In the last five trading days before expiry, it will also cover next-month (M2) futures. However, it will not apply to far-month (M3) contracts, spread trades, options or futures on ex-dates.
Existing parameters such as tick size, lot size and price bands will remain unchanged; both limit and market orders will be allowed during the order entry phase but stop-loss and immediate or cancel (IOC) orders will not be permitted. Indicative price data, equilibrium price and real-time demand/supply statistics will be disseminated during the session.
The initiative follows a directive from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and is intended to enhance transparency in price discovery, smooth the opening of derivatives markets, and potentially reduce volatility at the start of trading.
In short, from December 8 onwards, traders in F&O contracts on the NSE will have a structured 15-minute pre-open window to better align with price discovery mechanisms already in use in the cash equity market.
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