The majority of share dealing in the UK and US occurs within specific “market open” hours.
While these are the normal trading hours for shares, there is occasional activity outside of this session. These stock exchanges offer pre- and post-market trading, Monday to Friday. These sessions work differently to the regular hours, as buyers and sellers deal directly with each other through electronic communication networks, instead of operating through brokers or trading providers.
As there are no regular trading hours for stocks at the weekend, if you see news about stocks being up or down over the weekend, it’s probably referring to stock futures – which begin trading at 11pm on Sunday night (UK).
The following are the trading hours for UK and US stock exchanges.
UK stock market hours
The London Stock Exchange opens at 8 am UK time and closes at 4:30 pm – with a break from 12:00 pm to 12:02 pm.
Country: United Kingdom
Stock Exchange: London Stock Exchange
Local time (UK): 8 am to 4:30 pm
US stock market hours
America’s largest stock exchanges, the NYSE and the NASDAQ, are located in New York City. Their regular stock trading hours are Monday to Friday 9:30 am to 4:30 pm EST (2:30pm to 9pm GMT).
The US session is shorter than the UK market hours with just 6 hours and 30 minutes of trading time available compared to a total of 8 hours and 28 minutes on the London Stock Exchange.
Country: United States
Stock Exchange: New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
Local time (EST): 9:30 am to 4 pm
Join Now