The NSE International Exchange in Gujarat’s GIFT City has extended its market operations to 23 hours and 30 minutes a day, creating one of the longest trading windows in the global exchange industry and a near round-the-clock market for international investors. The revised schedule took effect on 2 November 2026 and was announced by the exchange on 3 November.
Under the new timings, market operations run from 3:15 am IST to 2:45 am IST the following day, covering Asian, European and American trading hours in a single continuous window. The exchange says the extension sets a new global benchmark for continuous trading across five trading days, and that its systems can complete maintenance within minutes between sessions. Individual products may still follow their own session timings within the overall window, and participants are advised to check the schedule for each instrument.
NSEIX Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer V. Balasubramaniam described the extension as an important milestone in creating a globally accessible marketplace from GIFT City. The aim, he said, is to give market participants greater flexibility to access markets across time zones, rather than forcing them to wait for a distant opening bell or to trade through intermediaries in other centres.
NSEIX is an international multi-asset exchange set up at GIFT City on 5 June 2017 and recognised by the International Financial Services Centres Authority, the regulator for India’s international financial services centres. It offers products including stock, index and currency derivatives, depository receipts and global stocks, and it has become the home of GIFT Nifty futures, the offshore Nifty contract that once traded in Singapore.
The move strengthens GIFT City’s claim to be India’s bridge to global capital markets. By operating almost around the clock, the exchange can serve investors in Tokyo and Sydney in the morning, London and Frankfurt in the afternoon, and New York in the evening, all from a single Indian venue. For foreign portfolio investors and non-resident Indians, that continuity removes one of the frictions of trading India-linked products from abroad.
There are practical limits to note. A 23.5-hour operating window does not mean every product trades continuously throughout the period, and the exchange’s own guidance distinguishes the overall window from individual product sessions. GIFT Nifty, for example, follows its own morning and evening sessions within the wider day. Traders will need to learn the new session structure before assuming a contract is live at any given hour.
The extension also raises the operational bar for the exchange, its members and its clearing systems, which must now run, monitor and maintain markets for almost the entire day. NSEIX says it completed testing sessions before implementation and that maintenance can be done in short windows, but the first weeks under the new schedule will be the real test.
For GIFT City, the announcement is a statement of intent. India’s international financial centre is no longer content to be a regional venue with regional hours. With a 23.5-hour market, it is pitching itself as a global one, open whenever the world’s investors are awake. Whether trading volumes follow the extended hours will determine whether the milestone becomes a turning point or merely a longer day.
