NEPSE trading rules in 2026: hours, price limits, circuit breakers and settlement

NEPSE changed several of its core trading rules in April 2026. The trading week moved to Monday–Friday, the daily price band widened from ±10% to ±15%, and the index circuit breaker was rewritten. Older guides online still quote the previous rules, so here is the current set in one place.

When the market is open

Pre-open (10:30–11:00). You can place, change and cancel orders, but nothing trades yet. Just before 11:00 the system runs a single-price auction: it picks the opening price at which the most shares can change hands, and every matched order fills at that one price. Orders that don't match in the auction carry over into the continuous session.

Continuous session (11:00–15:00). Orders match one by one on price-time priority: the best price first, and at the same price, whoever ordered first. The last traded price at the end of the day becomes the closing price.

NEPSE closes on public holidays and occasionally on short notice. When a technical outage stops trading, NEPSE usually extends the close by the time that was lost.

How far a price can move

There are three separate limits:

The per-order band is why a stock "walks" towards its limit instead of jumping there. Even on very strong demand, each new trade can only be up to 3% away from the last one, so a stock that opens at +5% needs several steps to reach +15%.

Once a stock reaches the edge of its daily band it doesn't stop trading. Orders simply can't go past the limit, so buyers queue at the upper limit (or sellers at the lower one) until the other side shows up or the day ends.

Prices move in steps of Rs 0.10 (the tick size), and shares trade in board lots of 10 for companies with a Rs 100 face value. Smaller quantities go through the separate odd-lot market, which doesn't set the official price.

The index circuit breaker

Separate from individual stock limits, NEPSE halts the whole market when the NEPSE index moves too far in one day:

A halt stops every security, not just the ones that are moving. If the market closes for the day, the closing prices are the prices at the time of the halt.

Before April 2026 the thresholds were 4% (20-minute halt), 5% (40-minute halt) and 6% (closed for the day).

Settlement: why you can't sell what you just bought

NEPSE settles trades on T+2: two trading days after the trade day (T).

• T (trade day): the trade happens.
• T+1: the buyer pays the broker; the seller authorises the transfer of shares from their demat account (EDIS in MeroShare).
• T+2: shares reach the buyer's demat account and the money reaches the seller's broker. Capital gains tax is worked out and deducted at this point.

Because the trading system checks sell orders against the shares actually in your demat account, you can't sell shares you bought until they've settled. There is no intraday trading and no short selling on NEPSE.

What this means in practice

• Plan exits around T+2. Shares bought on Monday reach your demat account at settlement on Wednesday, and you can't sell them before they're there.
• Wide bands cut both ways. With ±15% a day, a stock can move further against you in one session than it could before April 2026.
• Watch the index on big days. An 8% index move closes the market, and you can't trade again until the next session.

You can follow live prices, the day's movers and circuit-hitting stocks on the NepseLytics dashboard, and the live chart shows every listed stock with no sign-in needed.

This article explains market rules for general information. It isn't investment advice. Rules change; check NEPSE's notices for the latest version.