Guide
Opening Auctions, Lunch Breaks and Closing Prices Explained
A trading day is not one long, even stream of trades. Most exchanges start and end the day with an auction, and several Asian markets stop for lunch. These phases decide the official opening and closing prices, which are the prices most charts, indices and funds use.
How an auction works
During an auction, the exchange collects buy and sell orders for a few minutes without matching them. At the end it calculates the single price at which the most shares can change hands, and executes all matching orders at that price. Everyone in the auction gets the same price.
The opening auction absorbs the orders that built up overnight. The closing auction concentrates trading at the end of the day, when index funds and other large investors want to trade at the official closing price.
Closing auctions by exchange
| Exchange | Closing auction (local time) |
|---|---|
| NYSE | Closing auction at 16:00; market-on-close orders accepted until 15:50 |
| Nasdaq | Closing Cross at 16:00; market-on-close orders accepted until 15:50 |
| London Stock Exchange | 16:30–16:35, ending at a random moment |
| Xetra and Euronext | From 17:30, for a few minutes |
| Tokyo Stock Exchange | 15:25–15:30 |
| HKEX | Closing auction session from 16:00 to about 16:10 |
| Shanghai and Shenzhen | Closing call auction 14:57–15:00 |
| Korea Exchange | 15:20–15:30 |
| Taiwan Stock Exchange | 13:25–13:30 |
| ASX | Closing single price auction at about 16:10 |
| Singapore Exchange | Pre-close phase from 17:00 |
A random end time, as in London and Hong Kong, makes it harder to move the price with a last-second order.
Tokyo's longer day
On 5 November 2024 the Tokyo Stock Exchange moved its close from 15:00 to 15:30, after decades of closing at 15:00. The extra time made room for a closing auction from 15:25 and gives investors more time to react to news during the day.
Which markets stop for lunch
| Exchange | Morning session | Lunch break | Afternoon session |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | 09:00–11:30 | 11:30–12:30 | 12:30–15:30 |
| Hong Kong | 09:30–12:00 | 12:00–13:00 | 13:00–16:00 |
| Shanghai and Shenzhen | 09:30–11:30 | 11:30–13:00 | 13:00–15:00 |
Orders entered during the break wait for the afternoon session, and the afternoon opens with its own short auction in Tokyo. Singapore dropped its lunch break in 2011, and Korea, Taiwan and India trade without one.
What this means for your orders
- Open with a limit. Prices at the open can jump after overnight news. A limit order protects you from a much worse price than you expected.
- Use the close for a fair reference. If you want the official closing price, many brokers offer market-on-close or limit-on-close orders. Check the cut-off time, such as 15:50 in New York.
- Mind the lunch break. News released at midday in Tokyo, Hong Kong or Shanghai is only traded when the afternoon session starts.
- Thin minutes are expensive. Just after the open and right before an auction, spreads can be wide on smaller stocks.
The live market clock shows which exchanges are open, on lunch break or about to close, and the exchange profiles list each market's auction times.
Sources
This guide explains how markets work; it is not investment advice. Check current rules with the exchange or your broker.