The Reserve Bank of India has decided to curtail trading hours for the financial markets across the board to four hours (from 10 am to 2 pm) from April 7 to April 17 as the Covid-19 outbreak-related restrictions have resulted in dislocations, adversely impacting the functioning of the markets.

The central bank, in a statement, said staff and IT resources have been severely affected, posing operational and logistic risks. The thinning out of activity is impacting market liquidity and increasing volatility of financial prices, it added.

In order to minimise these risks and ensure that market participants maintain adequate checks and supervisory controls while optimising thin resources and ensuring safety of personnel, it has been decided to revise trading hours for various markets, the RBI said.

The financial markets include call/notice/term money (current timing: 9 am to 5 pm); market repo in government securities (9 am to 2:30 pm); Tri-party repo in government securities (9 am to 3 pm); and commercial paper and certificates of deposit (9 am to 5 pm).

Further, it also includes repo in corporate bonds (9 am to 6 pm), government securities, including Central government securities, State development loans and Treasury bills (9 am to 5 pm), foreign currency (FCY)/Indian rupee (INR) trades including forex derivatives (9 am to 5 pm); and rupee interest rate derivatives (9 am to 5 pm).

In the case of the Foreign Currency (FCY)/Indian rupee (INR) trades including forex derivatives and Rupee Interest Rate Derivatives markets, the 10 am to 2 pm timing is applicable to “other than those traded on recognised stock exchanges”.

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