Forex trading session times in India (IST)
India is UTC+5:30, so a table written for another zone is wrong by half an hour. Session times worked out for IST, the overlaps and when the week opens.
Forex session times in India (IST)
India Standard Time is UTC+5:30, and India does not use daylight saving. The half-hour offset is the thing that trips up most conversions: a table written for UTC+5 or UTC+6 is wrong by thirty minutes in India, and a table written for Pakistan is wrong by thirty minutes the other way. The tables below are worked out for IST directly, using the working-day convention for a session: 08:00 to 17:00 local time in Sydney, London and New York and 09:00 to 18:00 in Tokyo. For other dates use the session times converter.
Northern summer (UK on BST, US on EDT, Sydney on winter time)
| Session | India (IST) time | UTC |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 03:30 to 12:30 | 22:00 to 07:00 (next day) |
| Tokyo | 05:30 to 14:30 | 00:00 to 09:00 |
| London | 12:30 to 21:30 | 07:00 to 16:00 |
| New York | 17:30 to 02:30 (next day) | 12:00 to 21:00 |
| London and New York overlap | 17:30 to 21:30 | 12:00 to 16:00 |
| Tokyo and London overlap | 12:30 to 14:30 | 07:00 to 09:00 |
Northern winter (UK on GMT, US on EST, Sydney on summer time)
| Session | India (IST) time | UTC |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 02:30 to 11:30 | 21:00 to 06:00 (next day) |
| Tokyo | 05:30 to 14:30 | 00:00 to 09:00 |
| London | 13:30 to 22:30 | 08:00 to 17:00 |
| New York | 18:30 to 03:30 (next day) | 13:00 to 22:00 |
| London and New York overlap | 18:30 to 22:30 | 13:00 to 17:00 |
| Tokyo and London overlap | 13:30 to 14:30 | 08:00 to 09:00 |
A quick way to convert in your head
The mental arithmetic for India is: add five hours, then add thirty minutes. London’s 08:00 UTC winter opening becomes 13:30 in India. New York’s 13:00 UTC winter opening becomes 18:30. That works the whole year, because the Indian clock never moves, but the UTC starting points themselves move by an hour in summer, which is why the summer table shows 12:30 and 17:30 instead.
| UTC time | India time | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 07:00 | 12:30 | London opens in northern summer |
| 08:00 | 13:30 | London opens in northern winter |
| 12:00 | 17:30 | New York opens in northern summer |
| 13:00 | 18:30 | New York opens in northern winter |
| 21:00 | 02:30 (next day) | Week opens in northern summer, Sunday UTC |
| 22:00 | 03:30 (next day) | Week opens in northern winter, Sunday UTC |
The week in IST
The forex week opens on Monday 02:30 in northern summer and Monday 03:30 in northern winter, and closes on Saturday 02:30 or Saturday 03:30. Indian trading hours for domestic markets are not the same thing: the currency and gold contracts of Indian exchanges have their own sessions, published by the exchange. This page is about the global over-the-counter forex market that MT5 brokers quote.
Where the sessions fall in an Indian day
Tokyo’s session runs 05:30 to 14:30 IST, early morning to mid-afternoon. London opens at 12:30 in summer or 13:30 in winter, in the afternoon, and finishes in the evening. The overlap of Tokyo and London is the one-hour or two-hour window at 12:30 to 14:30 in summer and 13:30 to 14:30 in winter.
The London and New York overlap runs 17:30 to 21:30 in summer and 18:30 to 22:30 in winter. That is the evening into the night in India, and the end of it sits at or after 21:30. A trader who wants the busiest hours therefore trades late, and a trader who wants a normal bedtime trades the Tokyo and London afternoon instead.
| Your priority | Sessions that fit | Hours in IST (summer / winter) |
|---|---|---|
| Trade before or around work | Tokyo, early London | 05:30 to 14:30 |
| Trade in the afternoon | London, with Tokyo overlap | 12:30 to 21:30 / 13:30 to 22:30 |
| Trade the busiest window | London and New York overlap | 17:30 to 21:30 / 18:30 to 22:30 |
| Avoid late nights | Tokyo and London afternoon only | Skip New York |
An example of the half-hour trap (hypothetical)
A trader reads a table that says the overlap starts at 18:00 and begins watching charts at that time. In winter in India the overlap actually starts at 18:30, so the first half hour is spent in the quieter late London session without knowing it. In summer it starts at 17:30 and the trader is thirty minutes late. Neither mistake loses money by itself, but both put a journal note such as “opened at the start of the overlap” out by thirty minutes, and across a hundred trades the bucket for that hour is polluted.
Matching your journal to Indian time
MetaTrader 5 shows the broker’s server clock. A broker on UTC+3 is two and a half hours behind IST, so a trade closed at 20:00 server time was 22:30 in India. Measure your broker’s offset in Market Watch, as MT5 server time explained shows, and keep one convention in your sheet. AI Trading Journal stores every trade on the broker’s clock, the same as the History tab, so converting to IST is a single added column when you export the report. The charts of net P&L by close hour in the report use the broker’s clock too, which is why you need the offset to read them against a session table.
Gold in IST
The usual gold break, near 17:00 New York time, falls at about 02:30 IST in northern summer and 03:30 in northern winter. See gold trading hours for how the weekly open, the break and the weekend gap work.
Honest limits
- A session is a convention, and real activity does not start on the hour.
- These tables are for the global forex market quoted by MT5 brokers, not for Indian exchange sessions.
- Your broker may open, close and pause a symbol at slightly different times. Check the symbol specification in MetaTrader 5.
- This is general information, not trading advice, and nothing here says an hour is a good time to trade.
Related: Pakistan, UAE, South Africa and finding your best trading hours.
Frequently asked questions
What are the forex session times in India?
What is the London and New York overlap in IST?
When does the forex market open in India?
How do I convert UTC to IST?
Are these the same as MCX or NSE currency hours?
Related guides
- A local trading journal for MT5
- P&L calendar for MT5
- Trade notes, ratings and screenshots
- Trading progress and goals
- Back up your journal and move it to a new PC
- An offline trading journal for Windows
- How to set monthly trading goals
- Import your whole MT5 history
- How to tag trades
- Trade screenshots for your journal
- All trading journal comparisons
Find the hours you trade best: free for 7 days
Free for 7 days, no card required. After that, a one-time $19.99 purchase. No subscription. Also on the Microsoft Store.
One-time $19.99, no monthly fee · your MT5 login never leaves your PC · trades go into your own journal on your PC, not through our servers.
Start free 7-day trial