India Standard Time never shifts. That is exactly what makes commodity trading in India complicated: the exchanges and the instruments both follow IST, but the prices are made somewhere else entirely. MCX gold settles against COMEX. MCX crude follows NYMEX. Base metals reference the LME. When New York moves its clocks, Mumbai does not move with it, and MCX adjusts its session close by 25 minutes to keep the settlement window aligned. The MCX trading hours in India are not arbitrary: they are built around the moments when Indian and international liquidity actually overlap.
MCX and NCDEX: Two Exchanges, Two Different Jobs
Indiaโs regulated commodity futures market splits between two exchanges. MCX handles bullion, energy, and base metals: gold, silver, copper, crude oil, and natural gas. NCDEX handles agricultural derivatives: guar, chana, soybean, castor seed. The distinction matters because the two exchanges behave entirely differently.
MCX prices respond to what happens in London and New York. NCDEX prices respond to mandi arrivals, monsoon data, and government procurement decisions. That is why MCX stays open until midnight and NCDEX closes at 5:00 PM: there is no American session for guar futures.
| Segment | Hours (IST, MarโNov) |
| MCX non-agri: gold, silver, crude, natural gas, base metals | 9:00 AM โ 11:30 PM |
| MCX non-agri (US winter, NovโMar) | 9:00 AM โ 11:55 PM |
| MCX cotton, cotton oil cake, kapas | 9:00 AM โ 9:00 PM |
| MCX other agri contracts | 9:00 AM โ 5:00 PM |
| NCDEX (all commodities) | 10:00 AM โ 5:00 PM (pre-open 9:45 AM) |
Why the Close Shifts Twice a Year
IST has been UTC+5:30 since 1947 and has never changed. The United States moves its clocks on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November. Because MCX non-agri contracts reference COMEX and NYMEX settlement prices, the exchange shifts its close by 25 minutes each time New York shifts, to preserve the overlap.
Right now, through October 2026, the non-agri close is 11:30 PM IST. On 2 November 2026, US clocks go back. MCX will apply the revised timing from the following Monday, extending the close to 11:55 PM IST. The exchange publishes a circular in the week before each change.
Two things worth knowing before that date. First, there is no pre-open session on MCX. Several widely-circulated guides list one at 8:45 AM. There is not one. Orders go live at 9:00 AM straight into whatever overnight move happened on Globex. Second, intraday positions are squared off before the exchange close, not at it. Most brokers apply their MIS cut-off 10 to 15 minutes early. In the current schedule that is 11:20 PM, not 11:30 PM. The 10 minutes have cost traders money.
Gold and Crude: the Sessions That Matter Most
MCX gold and silver trade 9:00 AM to 11:30 PM IST. The contract is a derivative on physical gold at a defined purity and lot size, quoted without retail taxes. It is not the IBJA rate, which is a wholesale benchmark published on business days. It is not the jewellerโs price, which adds GST and making charges. Three different numbers, three different points in the chain.
International spot gold, the XAU/USD that appears in most searches, runs roughly Monday 3:30 AM to Saturday 2:30 AM IST, with a one-hour daily break. The moments that concentrate gold volume are the London bullion auctions at 3:00 PM and 7:30 PM IST, and the US data window at 6:00 PM IST.
MCX crude oil and natural gas trade on the same non-agri schedule. One appointment dominates both contracts each week: the EIA inventory reports. Crude inventories land every Wednesday at 8:00 PM IST during US daylight saving. Natural gas storage follows on Thursdays at the same hour. Crude regularly moves more in the 60 seconds after 8:00 PM on a Wednesday than in the preceding six hours. Holding these contracts through that release without sizing for gap risk is a reliable way to have a stop filled far outside the intended level.
Global Sessions in IST: When Each Venue Wakes Up
MCX morning trade, from 9:00 AM to roughly 12:30 PM IST, is mostly a repricing of what happened overnight on Globex. Volume is thinner, spreads are wider, and the price is finding where it should have opened. The block from 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM concentrates the highest MCX volume of the day: US data releases, the American equity open, and the EIA reports all fall here.
| Venue / event | IST (MarโNov) | IST (NovโMar) |
| CME Globex weekly open (Sunday) | 3:30 | 4:30 |
| LME and ICE Brent open | 5:30 | 6:30 |
| European equity and metals open | 12:30 | 13:30 |
| London gold AM auction | 15:00 | 16:00 |
| US macro data (CPI, NFP, etc.) | 18:00 | 19:00 |
| NYMEX / COMEX liquid hours begin | 18:30 | 19:30 |
| London gold PM auction | 19:30 | 20:30 |
| EIA crude inventories (Wednesdays) | 20:00 | 21:00 |
| European equity close | 21:00 | 22:00 |
Conclusion
MCX runs 9:00 AM to 11:30 PM IST for metals and energy, extending to 11:55 PM from early November. NCDEX closes at 5:00 PM. There is no MCX pre-open session and no hard evening-session boundary: the market runs continuously, and the character of the order flow changes rather than the session itself. The timing shifts twice a year when the United States moves its clocks, and the MCX circular is the only reliable source for the updated close. The 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM IST window concentrates the deepest liquidity of the Indian commodity trading day: that is when international flow, US data, and the EIA reports all arrive at once.
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