Market Regulator Sebi has given the all-clear for exchanges to trade from 9 am to 5 pm. Currently,the market opens at 9.55 am and closes at 3.30 pm. But brokers aren’t thrilled. Says Rakesh Nair,Head, Research and Investment Management, Doha Brokerage & Financial Services: “It won’t be easy to keep track of the indices. Any lapse in concentration during intra-day activity could mean huge losses.”
Also, the Mumbai commute will make the extended hours tougher on the trader. The move, some say, is to divert the rising volumes of Nifty Futures traded on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) to Indian markets. However, as most participants trading Nifty Futures on the SGX aren’t registered with Sebi,those volumes still won’t come to India. And even with the new timings, the exchanges still open later than the SGX. So, why the fuss?