From September 7, 2026, the exchanges (NSE and BSE) are changing how orders work during the pre-open session, and how price bands are set for ETFs. These are exchange-level and SEBI-driven changes, so they apply to every broker and every client trading on NSE or BSE – including Flattrade clients. Here’s what’s changing and what it means for you.
What is the Pre-Open Session?
Before regular trading begins at 9:15 AM, exchanges run a 15-minute pre-open session from 9:00 AM to 9:15 AM. Unlike regular market hours – where buy and sell orders are matched continuously – the pre-open session first collects all the orders placed and then matches them at a single price.
The exchange looks for the price at which the maximum quantity can be bought and sold, and this becomes the opening price for the day. The idea is to let overnight orders, including those reacting to global news and events, come together before regular trading starts, so the market opens at a more stable price with less initial volatility.
What’s Changing in the Pre-Open Session
| Time | Currently | From September 7, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00 AM – 9:05 AM | Market and limit orders can be placed, modified, or cancelled. | Market and limit orders can be placed, modified, or cancelled. |
| 9:05 AM – 9:08 AM | Market and limit orders can be placed, modified, or cancelled. Order entry closes randomly between 9:07 AM and 9:08 AM. | Only limit orders can be placed, modified, or cancelled. Market orders placed earlier can no longer be modified or cancelled. |
| 9:08 AM – 9:10 AM | Orders are matched and the opening price is determined. | The exchange randomly closes order entry during this window. Matching begins immediately once entry closes. |
| 9:10 AM – 9:12 AM | Orders are matched and the opening price is determined. | The opening price is determined, orders are matched, and trades are confirmed. |
| 9:12 AM – 9:15 AM | Market transitions to regular trading. | Market transitions to regular trading. |
There’s also a change in the order of matching. Currently, limit orders get priority over market orders during pre-open matching. From September 7, market orders will get priority instead, in this sequence:
- Eligible market orders are matched with other market orders first, based on the time they were placed.
- Any remaining market orders are then matched with eligible limit orders – better-priced limit orders get priority, and where price is equal, the earlier order gets priority.
- The remaining limit orders are matched with each other, again using price-and-time priority.
- Every trade matched in the pre-open session executes at the single opening price discovered during that session.
To summarise the key changes: market orders can only be placed in the first five minutes, limit-order entry continues until the exchange randomly closes it, matching starts right after entry closes, and market orders now get priority in matching. Special order types – Stop Loss (SL), Immediate or Cancel (IOC), and Disclosed Quantity (DQ) orders – will still not be allowed during the pre-open session.
Gold and Silver ETFs Join the Pre-Open Session
Currently, no ETFs – equity, debt, Gold, Silver, Liquid, or Overnight – participate in the pre-open session; they all start trading only at 9:15 AM. From September 7, this changes for Gold and Silver ETFs specifically.
Gold and silver keep trading in international markets even when Indian exchanges are closed, so their prices can move meaningfully overnight before Indian ETFs start trading. Including Gold and Silver ETFs in the pre-open session is meant to help discover a more accurate opening price that reflects these overnight moves. Equity, debt, Liquid, and Overnight ETFs will continue to start trading only at 9:15 AM, as before.
The Base Price Used for ETF Price Bands is Changing
ETFs trade within a daily price range (upper and lower limits), calculated from a reference called the base price. Currently, this base price is the ETF’s NAV from two trading days earlier (T-2 NAV).
The issue with a two-day-old NAV is that it can go stale quickly if the underlying asset moves sharply. For example, if an ETF’s T-2 NAV is ₹100 and its price band is 20%, it can trade between ₹80 and ₹120. If the underlying asset rallies and the ETF is already near ₹119, there’s barely any room left to move up – even if the underlying keeps rising. The same problem works in reverse during a sharp fall. This is exactly what happened with Gold and Silver ETFs during earlier sharp commodity price moves, forcing exchanges to temporarily switch to a more current reference price.
From September 7, the base price will instead be the ETF’s closing market price from the previous trading day, calculated as the volume-weighted average price during the last 30 minutes of trading. If the ETF didn’t trade in that window, its last traded price for the day is used; if it didn’t trade at all the previous day, the latest available closing NAV applies. This should keep price bands closer to where the ETF is actually trading.
New Price Bands by ETF Category
| ETF Category | Starting Price Band | Can Be Widened To |
|---|---|---|
| Equity and debt ETFs (except Liquid and Overnight) |
±10% of the base price | Up to ±20% of the base price, in steps of 5 percentage points after a cooling-off period |
| Gold and Silver ETFs | ±6% of the base price | Widened in steps of 3 percentage points after a cooling-off period; exchanges can widen further if international gold or silver prices move significantly |
| Liquid and Overnight ETFs | ±5% of the base price (fixed) | Not applicable |
The cooling-off period referenced above is generally 15 minutes, during which trading continues within the existing band rather than stopping. During the last 30 minutes of the trading day, this cooling-off period shortens to 5 minutes.
