Want to know which stock exchanges are open right now?
Of course, it depends on what day and time it is as you’re reading.
We’ve gathered all the information about opening hours, trading days, and holidays for some of the major stock exchanges across the globe.
In this guide, you’re going to find:
- Opening hours for the biggest US stock market
- When you can buy stock in London
- Which holidays Asian markets observe and which time zones they’re in
Along with other useful information about global stock exchanges.
Let’s get right into it, starting with New York.
Stock Market Hours for the World’s Biggest Stock Exchanges
National Stock Exchange of India
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange, also known as the NYSE or Big Board, is the biggest stock market in the world in terms of money invested.
Its market cap stands at $24.94 trillion, with more than 3.5 billion shares traded on July 9th, 2021.
The trading volume on the Nasdaq is higher, but the market cap is lower, meaning the NYSE is still the place where the highest value of US stock is traded.
As a place to trade company stock, the NYSE began in 1792 when traders met under a buttonwood tree on what is now Wall Street on Manhattan island.
Photo by Gemma Evans on Unsplash
From those humble beginnings, the market has grown to what it is today and is currently owned by Intercontinental Exchange, which is traded on the NYSE as ICE.
Now you know a little about the background of the NYSE, let’s look at when you’re able to trade the stocks listed on the market.
New York Stock Exchange Hours
The New York Stock Exchange hours work on Eastern Time, or EST, and Eastern Daylight Time, or EDT, depending on which time zone the city of New York is operating in.
The trading hours on the NYSE are:
Monday to Friday, 9.30 am to 4 pm
There is a pre-market trading session, known as the opening session, that trades from 4 am to 9.30 am when normal trading begins, whilst at the other end of the day, extended hours run from 4 pm to 8 pm.
To signal the start of the trading day, an opening bell rings, and the ringing of the bell is an internationally known symbol of Wall Street with the tradition dating back to the 1870s.
New York Stock Exchange Holidays
The NYSE doesn’t trade every weekday, there are stock market holidays that line up with public holidays in the USA.
The specific dates can change depending on weekends and extra holidays can be added, but, in general, you can expect the NYSE to be closed for the following holidays:
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
- Washington’s Birthday
- Good Friday
- Memorial Day
- Independence Day
- Labor Day
- Thanksgiving Day, with trading closing at 1 pm the Friday after Thanksgiving
- Christmas Day
That’s everything you need to know about opening hours on the NYSE, so we’re moving on to the next exchange on our list.
Hong Kong Stock Exchange
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is also referred to as the HKEX and is one of the far eastern nodes on the global market.
The market is worth $6.87 trillion with well-known companies such as Tencent and HSBC Bank traded on the exchange.
Now one of the biggest stock exchanges in the world, the HKEX began as an informal trading space in the 19th century and was eventually established as the Stockbroker’s Association of Hong Kong in 1891 and was renamed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1914.
Photo by bady abbas on Unsplash
The HKEX moved to all-electronic trading in 2017, closing the trading floor on October 27th that year.
What are the stock trading hours of this online-only market?
Hong Kong Stock Exchange Hours
Hong Kong operates on Hong Kong Standard Time, or HKT, which is GMT +8, and doesn’t adjust clocks for daylight saving.
There are different trading sessions in Hong Kong, which are:
- Pre-opening session 9 – 9.30 am
- Morning session 9.30 am – 12 pm
- Extended morning session, or lunch time, 12 – 1 pm
- Afternoon session 1 – 4 pm
- Closing auction session 4 – 4.08-4.10
Hong Kong Stock Exchange Holidays
The Hong Kong market closes for the official public holidays, which can vary from year to year.
In general, you can expect the HKEX to be closed for the following holidays each year:
- The first day of January
- Two days over Lunar New Year
- Good Friday
- Easter Monday
- Birthday of the Buddha
- Tuen Ng Festival
- Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day
- The day following the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival
- National Day
- Chung Yeung Festival
- Christmas Day
Moving on to the next stock exchange on our list.
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is one of the oldest in the world, having been founded in 1801, it’s been a place for international trade ever since.
The market cap of the London exchange is $3.82 trillion and there were over 854 million trades executed on July 12, 2021.
The exchange is no longer run from a trading floor – it moved to fully electronic trading after market deregulation back in 1986.
Photo by Hieu Vu Minh on Unsplash
You may have heard of the FTSE 100 in relation to the UK stock market; this is an index that provides real-time information about the 100 largest stocks traded on the London Stock Exchange.
What times are you able to trade on this market?
London Stock Exchange Hours
The UK uses either Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or British Summer Time (BST) for its time zone.
The regular trading hours in London are:
8 am – 12 pm and 12.02 pm – 4 pm.
That two-minute break was announced in November 2014 to allow for a midday stock auction that’s intended to boost market liquidity by allowing for two minutes of trading without price changes during the day.
The trading hours in London are some of the longest in all the exchanges in the world, as we’ll see when we look at the other stock market open and close times.
London Stock Exchange Holidays
Public holidays, known as bank holidays in the UK, will see the London exchange close.
As a general guide, expect the London Stock Exchange to be closed for:
- New Year’s Day
- Good Friday
- Easter Monday
- Early May Bank Holiday
- Spring Bank Holiday
- Summer Bank Holiday
- Christmas Day
- Boxing Day
Whilst on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, there’s half-day trading, with the market closing at 12.30 pm.
The exact dates of these holidays can change each year depending on whether Christmas or Boxing Day falls on a weekend, for example.
Over to the next stock exchange we’re looking at.
Shanghai Stock Exchange
The history of the Shanghai Stock Exchange is closely linked with the history of China in the 20th century.
Stock trading in Shanghai dates as far back as the 1860s but was closed from 1949 up until 1990, when stock trading returned to mainland China.
The exchange’s market cap is $7.63 trillion with some of the largest companies on the exchange being partially owned by the Chinese government.
Photo by Kido Dong on Unsplash
The Shanghai Stock Exchange isn’t open to everyone – there are limits on the people who are able to buy different asset classes on the stock market, such as individual investors having residency in China, being employed by a company that’s traded on the exchange, or other conditions.
The market open time is coming right up.
Shanghai Stock Exchange Hours
China doesn’t adjust clocks for daylight saving, so the local time in Shanghai doesn’t need to be adjusted – it’s always on Chinese Standard Time, GMT +8.
The normal trading hours for stocks on the Shanghai Stock Exchange are, Monday to Friday:
- 9.30 – 11.30 am
- 1.00 – 2.57 pm
There’s also an opening call auction between 9.15 – 9.25 am and a closing call auction from 2.57 – 3 pm.
Shanghai Stock Exchange Holidays
In Shanghai, stock market trading hours are suspended for government holidays which can change depending on the calendar each year.
Expect no trading for:
- New Years Day
- Chinese New Year – closed for five days
- The Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day
- Chinese Labor Day – closed for two days
- Dragon Boat Festival
- Mid-Autumn Festival – closed for two days
- China National Day
Author’s Note: The length of closures that we’ve noted have been the same in recent years but are subject to change.
The next stock exchange we’re looking at is in Japan.
Tokyo Stock Exchange
The Tokyo Stock Exchange is usually referred to as Tosho or TSE and is the earliest opening market on our list.
The TSE traces its history back to 1878 but the present version of the exchange dates to 1949 and the old trading floor was abolished in favor of all-electronic trading back in 1999.
At $6.54 trillion, it’s the fifth-largest stock exchange in the world as of July 12, 2021.
As of the same date, the largest company traded on the Tokyo exchange by market capitalization is Toyota, valued at $248.54 billion, making it one of the most valuable companies in the world.
Photo by Riccardo Chiarini on Unsplash
The opening hours and days are coming up next.
Tokyo Stock Exchange Hours
Tokyo, like most stock exchanges, is open Monday to Friday.
A normal trading day operates over two sessions:
- 9 – 11.30 am
- 12.30 – 3 pm
Tokyo works of Japanese Standard Time, which is GMT +9.
There are after-market trading sessions for different securities and commodities which run as late as 5.30 am the following morning.
Tokyo Stock Exchange Holidays
Stock market trading on the TSE is closed for all of the official government holidays, known locally as national holidays.
The days that the exchange takes off are:
- New Year’s Day
- Coming of Age Day
- National Foundation Day
- Emperor’s Birthday
- Vernal Equinox
- Showa Day
- Constitution Memorial Day
- Greenery Day
- Children’s Day
- Marine Day
- Sports Day
- Mountain Day
- Respect for the Aged Day
- Autumnal Equinox
- Culture Day
- Labor Thanksgiving Day
The next stock exchange on our list is coming right up.
Toronto Stock Exchange
The Toronto Stock Exchange, or TSX, is the primary market to trade senior Canadian stock.
It’s the third-largest exchange in North America in terms of market cap, with stock listed totaling $3.18 trillion.
An informal stock exchange began in Toronto in 1852 and it became an official entity in 1861 with 16 stocks available for trade, compared to the nearly 1,700 stocks available to trade today.
Out of those stocks listed, nearly half are exchange-traded products such as ETFs, with the iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF being the largest with a market cap of CA$11.06 billion – roughly US$8.8 billion – as of May 31st 2021.
Photo by Richard Kidger on Unsplash
Jumping into the trading hours, next.
Toronto Stock Exchange Hours
The city of Toronto is on the eastern side of Canada and works in the Eastern Standard Time and Eastern Daylight Time zones, matching the time used by the NYSE and Nasdaq.
The regular market hours on weekdays are:
- 7 – 9.30 am – pre-open session
- 9.30 am – 4 pm – continuous trading session
- 4.15 – 5pm – extended trading session
Toronto Stock Exchange Holidays
The public holidays of Canada are observed by the Toronto Stock Exchange and no trading takes place on those days.
The actual dates can vary year-to-year, but the days that are observed by the TSX are:
- New Year’s Day
- Family Day
- Good Friday
- Victoria Day
- Canada Day
- Civic Holiday
- Labour Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Christmas Day
- Boxing Day
We have two more stock exchanges to look at, so let’s get right to the next one.
National Stock Exchange of India
To trade on the Indian stock market, you can participate in the National Stock Exchange of India, or NSE.
The exchange currently lists stock with a total market cap of $3.05 trillion, making it the biggest of the eight exchanges in India.
The NSE was founded as a company in 1992, with trading starting in 1993, based in the city of Mumbai, in the state of Maharashtra.
Unlike the other exchanges we’ve looked at, the NSE has never had a trading floor; it’s been an electronic-only exchange throughout its whole existence.
Not every brokerage will be able to access the NSE since there are different rules and account structures that apply to being able to invest in Indian companies as a foreign national.
Photo by Hardik Joshi on Unsplash
With that, let’s check out when trading happens on this exchange.
National Stock Exchange of India Hours
A regular session for the stocks and bond markets in India is:
9.15 am – 3.30 pm
With the hours applying Monday through Friday.
A closing session runs from 3.40 – 4 pm on each trading day, as well.
Mumbai and the NSE work off Indian Standard Time, or IST, which is GMT +5.30 with no daylight saving time observed through the year.
National Stock Exchange of India Holidays
India has a range of government-mandated public holidays.
The NSE observes each of them but doesn’t always add an extra day off for trading when a holiday falls on a weekend.
Days you can expect to be observed as holidays on the Indian stock exchange include:
- Republic Day
- Mahashivratri
- Holi
- Good Friday
- Dr .Baba Saheb Ambedkar Jayanti
- Ram Navami
- Id-Ul-Fitr (Ramzan ID)
- Bakri Id
- Moharram
- Ganesh Chaturthi
- Dussehra
- Diwali-Balipratipada
- Gurunanak Jayanti
- Mahavir Jayanti
- Maharashtra Day
- Independence Day
- Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti
- Christmas
There’s one final stock market that we’re looking at.
Saudi Stock Exchange Tadawul
The Tadawul Stock Exchange is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and is the Middle East’s largest stock exchange.
The total value of stock listed on the Tadawul stands at $2.58 trillion as of July 12th, 2021.
Although the market is based in Saudi Arabia, it doesn’t guarantee that every stock traded on the exchange is halal, or compliant with Shariah financial principles.
There is no requirement to meet any standards of Shariah to be able to list on the Tadawul, but there are specific Islamic financial instruments such as Sukuk that are available for trade.
Photo by ekrem osmanoglu on Unsplash
Tadawul has the fewest companies listed out of all the exchanges we’ve looked at, with 203 stocks available on the market.
Now for the trading hours.
Saudi Stock Exchange Tadawul Hours
Unlike any other stock exchange we’ve looked at so far, the Tadawul trades from Sunday to Thursday, with Friday and Saturday being the weekend in Saudi Arabia.
In terms of hours, day trading begins at 10 am and finishes at 3 pm on these days.
Daylight saving isn’t observed in the country, meaning the time zone is always Arabian Standard Time, GMT +3.
Saudi Stock Exchange Tadawul Holidays
The Saudi financial markets are closed for public holidays, although these days move throughout the calendar because they’re based on the Islamic calendar which follows lunar cycles.
The dates for Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha – the two religious holidays observed – are only known weeks or even days in advance since the moon needs to be seen in order for the next month in the Islamic calendar to begin.
The National Day of Saudi Arabia, September 23rd, is also a holiday for the Tadawul.
That’s the trading hours and holidays for some of the biggest and most well-known stock exchanges in the world completed, so let’s wrap this up.
Wrapping Up
That’s all of them.
We’ve looked at some of the highest value stock exchanges across the world and what times of day and days of the week they’re open to trade.
Along with when you can trade these stocks, you should now know a little about the scale of these selected markets and some other useful information about each exchange.
Are you interested in accessing these markets and starting to trade stocks?
You can join ZuluTrade to begin trading stocks, forex, and other financial instruments.
Disclaimer: The views expressed do not constitute investment or any other advice/recommendation/suggestion and are subject to change. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. Opinions expressed in this article do not represent the opinion of ZuluTrade Social Trading Platform and do not constitute an offer or invitation to anyone to invest or trade. Every metric and the statistical number is a result of a past performance which does not constitute a promise or a certainty for a future one.