The decision comes after SEBI held discussions with both exchanges regarding their roles in this new arrangement. The NSE and BSE will have to develop a joint Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) detailing the plan to be invoked during an exchange outage.

A move to bolster market resilience, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has mandated that the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the BSE function as alternative trading venues for each other.

Indian market regulator today gave its go ahead to NSE and BSE to act as alternative trading venue at the time of outage on either exchange. The exchanges will now have to prepare an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) that should include a plan to be invoked at the time of outage and submit it within 60 days.

In a bid to provide continuity of trading for investors, market regulator SEBI has asked the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange to act as a backup to each other, in the event of an outage. This would come into effect from April 1, 2025.

This is to reduce price risk for investors as announcements can come from companies and alter the share price at the time of an outage at a stock exchange

SEBI has directed BSE and NSE to act as alternative trading venues during outages, ensuring uninterrupted trading for investors. Exchanges must submit a joint SOP to SEBI within 60 days.