Commodity Market Timings in India: MCX and NCDEX Hours by Contract

How the Indian Commodity Trading Day Is Structured

Commodity trading in India runs on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) for bullion, base metals and energy, and on the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) for agricultural contracts. Both are regulated by SEBI, which merged commodity regulation into the securities framework in 2015. The trading day is far longer than the equity day on NSE and BSE because metals and energy track global prices that move while London and New York are open, well into the Indian night.

The MCX session is split into a morning continuous session that begins at 9:00 AM and an evening session that keeps the same order book open without a break. Some broker guides also describe a short pre-market window of about 8:45 AM to 8:59 AM to review, modify or cancel pending orders. MCX does not run an equity-style call auction that sets a single opening price. Knowing exactly when your specific contract closes matters, because placing a market order one minute after the close means it simply does not execute, and a position you wanted to square off intraday becomes an overnight carry with margin and gap risk.

The most common mistake retail traders make is assuming every MCX contract trades until 11:30 PM. That is true for gold, silver, crude oil and natural gas, but it is wrong for agricultural contracts. Trading the wrong assumption can leave you holding an illiquid agri position with no exit after 9:00 PM or 5:00 PM. The table below sets out the precise windows.

Quick Answers: MCX Hours at a Glance

• Days. MCX trades Monday to Friday. It is closed on Saturday and Sunday, apart from a special session that the exchange announces, such as Muhurat trading on Sunday 8 November 2026.
• Not 24 hours. MCX opens at 9:00 AM and closes at 11:30 PM or 11:55 PM for non-agri contracts. There is a gap overnight.
• Crude oil, gold, silver, copper, natural gas. 9:00 AM to 11:30 PM while US clocks are on daylight saving time, and 9:00 AM to 11:55 PM from 2 November 2026 to 12 March 2027.
• Cotton, cotton seed wash oil, kapas. 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM.
• Other agri contracts on MCX. 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
• NCDEX. Most contracts trade 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, with a pre-open from 9:45 AM to 10:00 AM according to broker guides.

The full table by contract group is below. Checked 28 October 2026. Sources disagree on the MCX pre-market window, so confirm the exact hours and dates on mcxindia.com (circulars) and ncdex.com before you trade.

Precise Per-Commodity MCX Timing Table

These are the standard session windows on MCX. The bullion, metal and energy evening close is 11:30 PM while US clocks are on daylight saving time (second Sunday of March to first Sunday of November) and 11:55 PM when they are not, which is 2 November 2026 to 12 March 2027 this winter, so that India stays aligned with the New York close that drives gold and crude prices.

Why the Old 11:55 PM and 9:00 PM Confusion Exists

A lot of online guides simply say MCX trades 9:00 AM to 11:30 PM, with an 11:55 PM close in the US winter months, and stop there. That is correct for bullion, base metals and energy, but it quietly ignores the agricultural contracts on MCX. SEBI distinguishes between internationally referenceable agri commodities, whose prices track a foreign benchmark such as the Bursa Malaysia palm oil contract, and non-referenceable agri commodities, which are purely domestic.

Internationally referenceable agri contracts such as crude palm oil are allowed an extended evening window to 9:00 PM so domestic prices can absorb overseas moves. Purely domestic agri contracts close at 5:00 PM, matching the traditional mandi and physical market hours. Lumping all of these into a single 11:30 PM figure, as many sites do, is a factual error.

• Bullion, energy and base metals: 9:00 AM to 11:30 PM while US clocks are on daylight saving time, and to 11:55 PM when they are not (2 November 2026 to 12 March 2027).
• Internationally referenceable agri such as crude palm oil and cotton: 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM, no daylight saving change.
• Domestic non-referenceable agri such as mentha oil and guar: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, no daylight saving change.
• Pre-market window reported by some guides: about 8:45 AM to 8:59 AM, to review, modify or cancel orders; MCX has no call auction.

When the Closing Time Changes With US Daylight Saving

MCX moves the close of its non-agri contracts when the US clocks change, so that the Indian evening session keeps overlapping the US trading day. The direction is easy to get backwards, so read this table carefully.

Contract groups affected: gold, silver, crude oil, natural gas and base metals. Cotton, cotton seed wash oil and kapas stay at 9:00 PM, and all other agri contracts stay at 5:00 PM, both year round. Because the change is tied to the US clock change on the first Sunday of November, MCX applies the new close from the Monday after, which is 2 November 2026.

Some broker guides describe the 11:55 PM close as 'during US daylight saving time'. That wording is the wrong way round for 2026 and 2027. Rely on the MCX circular for the dates.

One more detail: brokers often square off intraday positions in non-agri commodities a little before the close. For the 2 November 2026 change, one broker announced its automatic square-off timer moves from 11:00 PM to 11:25 PM. Your broker's time may differ, so check it. Close positions yourself before that if you do not want a forced exit.

NCDEX and the Agricultural Window

NCDEX is the home of Indian agri derivatives, with contracts in guar seed, guar gum, castor seed, jeera, coriander, soybean and other crops. Its core agri session runs 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM (with a pre-open from 9:45 AM to 10:00 AM), aligning with the physical spot markets and the working day of the farming and trading community it serves. A handful of internationally referenceable contracts can run later, but the bulk of NCDEX activity ends in the late afternoon.

This is why an agri trader and a bullion trader effectively live on different clocks. If you trade guar on NCDEX, your decision window is the daytime, driven by monsoon forecasts, sowing data and government minimum support price news. If you trade gold or crude on MCX, your most volatile hours are often after 6:00 PM, when London is active and US data releases hit the wire. Matching your availability to the right product is a basic but underrated part of building a trading routine.

A Worked Example: Crude Oil on MCX in the Evening Session

Suppose it is a weekday evening between 2 November 2026 and 12 March 2027, so MCX crude oil trades until 11:55 PM. The MCX Crude Oil contract has a lot size of 100 barrels, and the price is quoted in rupees per barrel. Assume crude is trading at Rs 6,500 per barrel. A trader expects a bullish US inventory report at around 9:00 PM IST (8:00 PM in US summer time) and buys one lot. The numbers below are illustrative and not a forecast.

• Buy 1 lot of MCX Crude Oil at Rs 6,500 per barrel, lot size 100 barrels, so the contract value is Rs 6,50,000.
• Margin required is at least 30 percent of contract value for crude oil (the clearing minimum from 18 May 2026), so at least Rs 1,95,000 is blocked, not the full Rs 6,50,000. Your broker may ask for more.
• After the inventory data, the price rises to Rs 6,560 and the trader sells before the 11:55 PM close.
• Gross profit is Rs 60 per barrel times 100 barrels, which is Rs 6,000.
• Costs to subtract: brokerage of about Rs 20 per side at a discount broker is Rs 40, plus CTT on the sell side, plus exchange and GST charges, roughly Rs 100 to Rs 150 in total here.
• Net profit is approximately Rs 6,000 minus around Rs 150, which is close to Rs 5,850.

Two points make this example specific to India. First, on non-agri commodity futures, the relevant transaction tax is Commodities Transaction Tax (CTT) at 0.01 percent on the sell side of the contract value, not the equity STT. On a Rs 6,56,000 sell value, CTT is about Rs 65. Second, the close itself is a hard constraint. If the trader had waited past 11:55 PM hoping for more, the order book would already be shut and the position would carry overnight, exposed to the gap when global crude moves while MCX is closed. Trading the session boundary is part of the strategy, not an afterthought.

Pre-Market Window and Special Sessions on MCX

Some broker guides describe a short pre-market window on MCX, from about 8:45 AM to 8:59 AM, in which you can review, modify or cancel pending orders before trading starts at 9:00 AM. Other guides say MCX has no pre-open at all. The one point that is clear is that MCX does not run an equity-style call auction that discovers a single opening price. Orders go live in the continuous market from 9:00 AM.

NCDEX publishes a pre-open from 9:45 AM to 10:00 AM according to broker guides. Broker guides disagree on this window, so check mcxindia.com for the current MCX timings. Special sessions, such as the Muhurat session or a weekend session, are announced by circular with their own timings. Read the circular for the date, because both the timings and the products can differ from a normal day.

What the CTT line in the worked example means: a broker guide on commodity transaction tax gives 0.01% of the trade price for non-agri futures, paid by the seller, and 0.05% of premium for options sold. STT on equity derivatives rose on 1 April 2026. Check your contract note for the CTT rate you are charged.

How Commodity Profits Are Taxed in India

This is where commodity trading differs sharply from equity. Profit from commodity futures and options is treated as non-speculative business income and taxed at your applicable income tax slab rate. The concessional capital gains rates that apply to equities, namely STCG at 20 percent and LTCG at 12.5 percent above Rs 1.25 lakh, do not apply to commodity derivatives. So a trader in the 30 percent slab who nets Rs 5 lakh from MCX trades over the year pays tax broadly at slab on that Rs 5 lakh as business income.

Because it is business income, you can also deduct genuine trading expenses such as brokerage, exchange charges, internet, advisory subscriptions and depreciation on equipment, and you must account for it in your profit and loss statement. If turnover crosses the tax audit threshold, a chartered accountant audit may be required. The transaction-level tax during trading is CTT, charged at 0.01 percent on the sell side of non-agri futures, while most agricultural commodity contracts are exempt from CTT altogether.

Why Global Market Hours Drive the Evening Session

The reason MCX keeps the lights on until 11:30 PM or 11:55 PM is simple. Gold, silver and crude oil are global assets whose benchmark prices are set in London and New York. Comex gold futures and NYMEX crude trade actively through the US session, which overlaps the Indian evening. If MCX closed at 5:00 PM like an agri market, Indian traders would have no way to react to US inflation data, OPEC decisions or a Federal Reserve statement until the next morning, by which time the price would have already gapped.

The daylight saving adjustment exists for the same reason. When New York moves its clocks, the US trading day shifts by an hour relative to India, and MCX moves its close by 25 minutes (to 11:55 PM in US winter time) to keep the overlap with the active US session. This is why bullion and energy traders watch the US economic calendar as closely as any Indian data point, and why the single most volatile MCX hours often fall between 6:00 PM and 11:30 PM IST.

• US Energy Information Administration crude inventory data, usually at 10:30 AM New York time on Wednesday (8:00 PM IST in US summer time, 9:00 PM IST in US winter time), moves natural gas and crude.
• US non-farm payrolls and CPI releases, typically 8:30 AM New York time (6:00 PM IST in US summer time, 7:00 PM IST in US winter time), swing gold and silver sharply.
• Federal Reserve policy statements, late Indian evening, can drive the largest single moves of the month in bullion.

Best Time of Day to Trade Commodities

There is no best hour for everyone, and no hour is safe. What changes through the day is how much is happening.

• Morning (9:00 AM to around 12:00 PM). The market reacts to Asian trading and news from overnight. Spreads can be wide right after the open.
• Early afternoon. The European session starts, and gold and crude often become more active. Exact clock times shift with European summer time.
• Evening (from about 6:00 PM IST). US data releases and the US stock market open fall in this window. The hours between roughly 6:00 PM and 11:30 PM IST are often the busiest for crude and gold, but busy also means fast losses.
• Last 30 minutes before the close. Liquidity can thin and orders can fill at worse prices. Many traders avoid starting new trades here.

Match the window to your life and your risk limit. A trader who cannot watch the screen after 9 PM should not hold a crude position until midnight. Use your journal to tag each trade with its hour, then check after a month which hours cost you money.

Holidays, Muhurat Trading and Special Sessions

MCX and NCDEX publish an annual holiday list, and the commodity calendar does not always match the equity calendar exactly, especially on days that are bank holidays. Some holidays close only the morning session while keeping the evening session open, because the evening session tracks global markets that are still trading. Always check the exchange holiday circular before assuming a day is fully open or closed.

On Diwali, MCX conducts a special Muhurat trading session in the evening, a symbolic auspicious window of about an hour. It is a real, settleable session, not a demo, so any trade you place carries genuine profit, loss and tax consequences. Liquidity can be thinner than normal, so spreads may widen, and a market order can fill further from the screen price than you expect.

MCX Holiday List for 2026: Morning and Evening Sessions

On many exchange holidays only the morning session (9:00 AM to 5:00 PM) is closed, and the evening session opens as normal. On a few, both sessions are closed. The table lists the weekday holidays for 2026.

Holidays on weekends in 2026: Mahashivratri (Sunday 15 February), Id-Ul-Fitr (Saturday 21 March), Independence Day (Saturday 15 August) and Diwali Laxmi Pujan (Sunday 8 November). Muhurat trading is scheduled on Sunday 8 November 2026, and the timings are to be notified later. Do not assume timings from last year.

The remaining dates in 2026 after 28 October are 8 November (Muhurat), 10 November and 24 November (morning closed, evening open) and 25 December (both closed). Always confirm 'is MCX open today' on the exchange site, because holidays can be added or changed with short notice.

Common Timing Mistakes That Cost Real Money

Most timing errors are avoidable. The expensive ones come from not knowing your specific contract close, ignoring the daylight saving shift, and placing orders into the final minutes when liquidity thins and slippage widens. A position you intended to exit intraday becomes an overnight carry simply because you missed the close by a few minutes, and the overnight gap can be larger than your entire intended profit.

• Assuming all MCX contracts trade to 11:30 PM when agri contracts close at 9:00 PM or 5:00 PM.
• Forgetting the 11:55 PM versus 11:30 PM daylight saving switch on bullion and energy.
• Placing large market orders in the last few minutes, when thin liquidity causes slippage.
• Carrying an unhedged position past the close into the overnight global gap without enough margin.
• Not using a hard stop-loss, so a fast US-session move runs against an open evening position.

A disciplined fix is to log every trade with its exact entry and exit time, the session you traded, and whether the close affected your exit. Over a few weeks this reveals whether you are systematically losing money in the last 30 minutes, or holding agri positions you cannot exit after 5:00 PM. A trading journal turns these timing patterns into something you can actually correct.

Sources and Further Reading

For authoritative, current data, always confirm session timings and transaction taxes on the official sources before you trade, because SEBI and the exchanges revise these from time to time. Refer to MCX (Multi Commodity Exchange), NCDEX and SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India).

Sources and Further Reading

For authoritative data and further reading on this topic, refer to MCX (Multi Commodity Exchange), SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) and NSE India. Always confirm current rules, rates and contract specifications on the official source before you trade.