In a circular, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has laid out standard operating procedures (SOPs) that will function during the stock exchange disruption. The power outage of the exchange mentioned in the notice refers to the interruption of continuous trading of the exchange. Its scope is sufficient to include technical interruption and trading interruption caused by the exchange itself or reasons beyond the control of the exchange.

The exchange has 15 minutes to notify market participants, exchange members, and other MII about the outage. The notice requires the exchange to inform the regulator immediately.

If trading is interrupted in one or more affected sectors, all other unaffected sectors continue to trade, and all other unaffected exchanges continue to trade in all their market sectors.

Affected exchanges must notify all market participants 15 minutes before resuming trading and conduct pre-market meetings like regular pre-opening meetings to allow for efficient price discovery.

The notice specifies several circumstances under which the trading hours may or may not be extended:

• Trading hours will remain unchanged if the affected stock exchanges resume trading at least one hour before the normal close.

• Trading hours on all exchanges will be extended by an hour and a half an hour before the market closes if trading on the affected stock exchanges has not yet returned to normal. The exchange must notify market participants, MII and SEBI of the extension of trading hours at least one hour and 15 minutes before the normal close of business.

• If an affected exchange fails to resolve its outage 45 minutes after the close of regular business, no trading will occur on the involved stock exchange for the day. However, other unaffected exchanges will continue to extend their business hours to facilitate the smooth closing and settlement of intraday business.

• Trading hours on all exchanges will be extended by an hour and a half if the outage occurs 15 minutes before the last trading and scheduled closing time.

Extend the trading hours of the spot market and extend the trading hours of the stock derivatives market. In addition, the extension of trading hours in the spot market will also apply to secondary market mechanisms such as buybacks and tender offers.