Stock Market Trading Hours – When Can You Trade Stocks Worldwide?

So you want to trade stocks but don’t know when the markets are open? If it’s your local exchange, you most likely know the answer, but what if you want to buy or sell stocks in a different region or time zone? Well, you’ve come to the right place. It doesn’t matter where in the world you are; you will find the answers to your questions within this lesson.

Why Do Stock Exchanges Have Different Trading Hours?

There are stock markets spread across the world, and they all have different trading hours. Most stock markets (with some exceptions) are open for trading from Monday to Friday and closed on the weekends. Some major stock exchanges in Asia stop for a lunch break, while others in Europe and Oceania don’t. Moreover, stock exchanges are also generally closed on public holidays, which may differ for countries worldwide.

Since normal trading hours are designed to facilitate the best concentration of buyers and sellers during these hours for market participants, stock market opening times are different for most countries. In addition, by having these set hours for trading, the stock exchange ensures strong liquidity between the opening and closing times instead of sporadic trades throughout the entire day.

Stock Market Trading Hours Around the World

In this section, we will explore the opening and closing hours of stock exchanges in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Oceania. We will also include the stock market holidays for the most popular stock exchanges worldwide. Remember that we use the GMT time zone to make things clear and simple.

Trading Hours In North America

North America consists of three of the largest stock exchanges in the world: the New York Stock Exchange, the NASDAQ, and The Toronto Stock Exchange. Trading on these exchanges is possible during normal stock market hours between 2:30 am to 9:00 pm GMT, Monday through Friday, without any lunch breaks. 

If that’s not long enough, both NYSE and NASDAQ offer after-hours trading for four extra hours! This is known as pre-market and after-market extended hours trading, and if you are interested in trading during these sessions, you’ll have to ask your brokerage firm to provide you access to pre-market trading and after-hours sessions.

During these sessions, trades can still be executed. Although the exchange has closed its doors for the day, electronic communication networks can still automatically match buyers and sellers. North American markets close for several public holidays. You can find the full list here.

Trading Hours In Europe

The Euronext exchange is the largest stock exchange in Europe and has locations in places such as Paris, Dublin, Brussels, and Oslo. For a full list of locations, you can visit this page. Euronext exchanges are open from 8:00 am to 4.30 pm (GMT) from Monday to Friday, without lunch breaks. 

Another famous European stock exchange is the London Stock Exchange (LSE), with its stock market open from 8 am to 4:30 pm (UK time), with no lunch breaks. The LSE is also closed on several public holidays. You can find the full list here. 

Below, you can find major European stock exchanges’ opening and closing times.

Trading Hours In Asia

Normal trading days on the Asian exchanges can sometimes vary from their traditional Western counterparts. Still, most of them keep the regular trading hours to the Monday to Friday template. 

The three biggest Asian Stock Exchanges – The Shanghai stock exchange, the Hong Kong stock exchange, and Shenzhen Stock Exchange – open from 1:30 am and close at 7:00 am (GMT). The Tokyo Stock Exchange remains open for an additional after-hours session and, therefore, closes at 8:00 am (GMT).

However, unlike Stock Exchanges in Europe and North America, Asian markets take a lunch break. These vary in their length. The markets are also closed for public holidays; you can find the full list here.

Trading Hours In The Middle East

Trading hours in the Middle East vary depending on the exchange. For example, the Saudi Stock Exchange is open from 7:00 am to 12:00 pm GMT from Sunday to Thursday, without lunch breaks. In Saudi Arabia, the weekend is Friday and Saturday. Therefore the Saudi Stock Exchange, along with the Israeli stock exchange, is one of the few stock exchanges in the world that is open on a Sunday.

Another popular Middle Eastern exchange, The Tehran Stock Exchange is open from Saturday to Wednesday, 5.30 am to 9 am GMT, without any lunch breaks. 

As for holidays, Stock Exchanges in the Middle East mostly follow the days of rest prescribed by religion rather than the model set out by Western exchanges.

Trading Hours In Oceania

The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is the largest stock exchange in Oceania, with trading hours from 12:00 am to 6:00 am GMT (without lunch breaks). The ASX is closed for several public holidays; you can find the full list here.

Another popular exchange in Oceania is the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZSX) which is open from 10 pm to 5 am GMT, without any lunch breaks. But, again, it closes for several public holidays; you can find the full list here.

Are Stock Markets Closed On Weekends?

Most stock exchanges around the world are closed over the weekend. However, this differs depending on the culture and religious practice of a region.

For example, various Middle Eastern stock exchanges are open on Saturdays, Sundays, or both. Still, besides a few stock exchanges in the Middle East, the vast majority of stock exchanges do not open the markets during the weekend.

Having said that, there is one market that is open 24/7. That is the cryptocurrency market which is open around the clock, without any breaks. Never!

Summary

We know all this information might be confusing, so we prepared a small printable table with all opening stock market hours of the above that you can download and hang up on your wall. Just right-click on the image below and select ’save as’.

Additionally, we suggest you learn how to use the Fibonacci Time Zones indicator, which is an excellent tool to help you grasp global financial market hours.

At last, remember, here at HowToTrade’s trading academy, we cover the three stock trading sessions, which include the Asian session, the European session, and the US session, with lots of tips and guidance from our trading coaches. 

In the following lessons, we’ll cover why you should invest in stocks and the different methods by which you can access the stock markets. See you in the next lesson!