Published 20th August, 2026
The final 20 minutes are the same.
Can we see how the journey changes each day?
Nayakanti Prashant
3rd Gen Banker & Citizen Lobbyist – Bengaluru
The Starting Point
Dear SEBI and Exchange Teams,
The market now has a new closing chapter.
From 3:15 PM to 3:35 PM, the Closing Auction Session
creates a concentrated journey towards the closing price.
The closing price matters far beyond the final traded price —
influencing index calculations, fund valuations and derivatives settlement.
Now imagine 3:15 PM.
In Mumbai, an institutional desk watches.
In GIFT City, another market participant watches.
In Bengaluru, an individual investor watches.
Different participants.
Different questions.
One 20-minute window.
The window is the same every market day.
The journey may not be.
What if that changing journey could be seen through one
simple daily visual picture?
Act I — The Same Clock. A Different
Journey.
It is 3:35 PM.
The closing picture has emerged.
But what happened between 3:15 and 3:35?
One day may show strong participation.
Another may show a different volume pattern.
Another may show a larger imbalance.
The clock remains the same.
The journey changes.
And perhaps the market already produces signals capable of
telling that story.
Can the journey of those signals become visible
too?
Prospective Audience — Different Eyes. Different
Questions.
In Mumbai, a fund manager could see how participation
shaped the closing journey.
In GIFT City, a trading desk could watch how the
auction behaved across trading days.
In Bengaluru, a researcher could look for patterns
emerging over time.
In Delhi, a market-policy or surveillance team could
view the same aggregated picture from another perspective.
And somewhere else in India, an individual investor may simply
ask:
“What actually happened during those final 20
minutes?”
Different places.
Different purposes.
One common daily picture.
The picture need not tell anyone what to conclude.
Perhaps it simply needs to make the changing journey
visible.
Illustrative only.
Act II — The Journey Behind the
Number
The market reaches 3:15 PM.
For the next 20 minutes, the auction unfolds.
Orders enter.
Signals change.
Liquidity gathers.
Imbalances may appear.
And eventually, an equilibrium closing price emerges.
Today’s journey may look different from yesterday’s.
Tomorrow’s may look different again.
But once the session ends, much of the attention naturally
moves to the final number.
Perhaps the more interesting citizen question is:
What happened on the way to that number?
Act III — One Journey. Many Daily
Pictures.
Imagine opening a simple daily view after the market closes.
Not a prediction.
Not a recommendation.
Not another trading dashboard.
Just the journey.
3:15 PM → 3:20 PM → 3:25 PM → 3:30 PM → 3:35 PM
Perhaps the view could show selected aggregate signals at each
stage.
One day, the journey may appear relatively smooth.
Another day, participation may build differently.
Another may show a more pronounced imbalance.
The important point is not to create a new interpretation of
the market.
It is to preserve the same visual framework every day,
so that the changing journey can be seen over time.
Same clock.
Different journey.
One common visual language.
Act IV — One Citizen Illustration
Perhaps an aggregate end-of-day public view could
look as straightforward as this:
|
Session |
Aggregate Volume |
Total Value (₹ Cr) |
Journey View |
|
Continuous Market |
XXXXXXX |
XXXXX |
— |
|
XXXXXXX |
XXXXX |
XXXXX |
|
|
XXXXXXX |
XXXXX |
XXXXX |
|
|
Closing Picture |
XXXXXXX |
XXXXX |
XXXXX |
Illustrative example only.
Perhaps the visual could also show the journey:
3:15 PM → 3:20 PM → 3:25 PM → 3:30 PM → 3:35 PM
with selected aggregate signals plotted along the
way.
The actual fields, definitions, data schema,
aggregation, frequency and safeguards would naturally belong to SEBI, the
exchanges and market-infrastructure domain experts.
The citizen observation is simple:
If the closing mechanism is digital and the
signals already exist, can the daily journey also become visible?
Because the final number tells us where the market
arrived.
The journey could help us see how it got there.
Illustrative only.
The citizen observation is simply:
If every market day produces a 20-minute CAS
journey, could that journey also leave behind one consistent daily visual
picture?
Because the final number tells us where we arrived.
Perhaps the journey can tell us how we got there.
Illustrative only.
One Citizen Thought
The market already has its mechanisms.
The exchanges already generate the data.
Perhaps the opportunity is simply to make the journey
easier to see over time.
The clock repeats.
The journey does not.
Not just a singular post-market total, but a simple visual
narrative of the session's journey.
The First Line on the Whiteboard
The clock repeats. The liquidity journey does not.
Let us see it!
A Citizen Observation
Could the exchanges, in an appropriate aggregated format,
consider a daily visual journey of the Closing Auction Session?
Not a prediction.
Not a recommendation.
Simply a consistent visual picture of selected aggregate
signals across 3:15 PM–3:35 PM.
The methodology, data points, aggregation, safeguards and
implementation are best left to SEBI, the exchanges and domain experts.
Same 20 minutes. Different journeys. One visible
picture.
Closing Thought
At 3:15 PM, the journey begins.
At 3:35 PM, the closing picture emerges.
Perhaps we should see the journey too.
Disclaimer
This is a citizen observation based on publicly available
information about SEBI's Closing Auction Session framework.
It is not financial, investment, trading, legal or
regulatory advice.
All visual examples and suggested fields are illustrative.
Actual methodology, data, aggregation, safeguards and implementation remain
with SEBI, the exchanges and relevant domain experts.
April 11 — Digital Transactions Day
Every digital journey leaves signals behind.
Start → Progress
→ Complete
→ Observe → Learn
Perhaps the opportunity is not merely to digitise the journey.
It is to make the journey visible.
The Joy of Digital Transactions
The Joy of Digital Transactions
Nayakanti Prashant
3rd Gen Banker & Citizen Lobbyist – Bengaluru
Advocating Digital Transactions Day (April 11)
Author’s Blogs
https://prashantrandomthoughts.blogspot.com
https://prashantnepayments.blogspot.com
https://innovationinbanking.blogspot.com
