Now, opening bell at 9 am

Minutes after the National Stock Exchange (NSE) announced today that it would start equity trading at 9 am from December 18, its rival Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) too followed suit.

A top BSE official said they, too, would trade from 9 am and the window for bulk and block deals would be open from 9 am to 9.35 am.

NSE's move to prepone the trade timings by an hour was an answer to BSE's announcement on Tuesday that aid that the exchange would start at 9.45 am instead of 9.55 am. The BSE was the first one to announce the extension in trading hours by 10 minutes on Tuesday. It has been trying to implement new strategies that could revive its equity derivative segment where the NSE has a 95 per cent share. NSE's daily average turnover in 2009 has been treble that of BSE, which is Asia's oldest stock exchange.

The capital market regulator, had on October 23, said it would allow stock exchanges to set their trading hours between 9.00 a.m and 5.00 p.m. Indian exchanges currently open between 9.55 a.m and 3.30 p.m.

Brokers at both the exchanges said they have no problems in the extension of trading hours. Deven Choksey, managing director of K R Choksey, said it was agood move and brokers would welcome this.