Sydney session forex time, and what moves in it
The Sydney session forex time is 09:00 to 17:00 Sydney time: 22:00 to 06:00 UTC from early October to early April, when Sydney is on summer time, and 23:00 to 07:00 UTC from April to October. It opens both the trading day and the trading week, and it is where Australian and New Zealand news lands. From 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026, the hours from the New York close to the Tokyo open moved AUD/USD 4.3 pips an hour, against 6.9 when London and New York trade together.
By Mike, founder of MacroSetup. Page updated . Measured on hourly prices from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026.
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Reading your clock.
- Sydney...
- Tokyo...
- London...
- New York...
Hours are shown in your own time zone and follow each centre's own clock change, so they shift by an hour at different times of the year. Trading itself runs through the night; a closed centre means its own desks have gone home, not that the market has stopped.
Sydney session time in your country
I built this page because almost everyone who looks up the Sydney session wants one thing first: what time it is where they live.
Nobody officially defines the Sydney session: spot forex has no exchange and no opening bell. We use Sydney's business hours, 09:00 to 17:00, the same hours as our live session clock.
Sydney changes its clocks on the first Sunday of October and the first Sunday of April. That is the opposite season to Europe and North America, so where you live decides how much the session moves for you. In India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa it moves by one hour twice a year, and only because Sydney does.
Twice a year the clocks are out of step: from the first Sunday of October until Europe and New York leave summer time, and from when they start it in March until the first Sunday of April. In those weeks the session starts and ends one hour later in London, Europe and New York than the table shows.
| Where | October to April | April to October |
|---|---|---|
| India (IST) | 03:30 to 11:30 | 04:30 to 12:30 |
| Pakistan (PKT) | 03:00 to 11:00 | 04:00 to 12:00 |
| Bangladesh (BST) | 04:00 to 12:00 | 05:00 to 13:00 |
| Philippines (PHT) | 06:00 to 14:00 | 07:00 to 15:00 |
| Kenya (EAT) | 01:00 to 09:00 | 02:00 to 10:00 |
| Nigeria (WAT) | 23:00 to 07:00 | 00:00 to 08:00 |
| South Africa (SAST) | 00:00 to 08:00 | 01:00 to 09:00 |
| United Kingdom (GMT / BST) | 22:00 to 06:00 | 00:00 to 08:00 |
| Central Europe (CET / CEST) | 23:00 to 07:00 | 01:00 to 09:00 |
| New York (EST / EDT) | 17:00 to 01:00 | 19:00 to 03:00 |
| UTC | 22:00 to 06:00 | 23:00 to 07:00 |
Where the end is earlier than the start, the session begins the evening before. Bangladesh Standard Time is also written BST, like British Summer Time.
How busy the Sydney session really is
We measured the hours between the New York close and the Tokyo open, when Wellington and Sydney are the only big centres awake: the average size of an hourly move, in pips, on every weekday from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026. Once Tokyo opens the two trade together, and those hours count as Tokyo in our numbers.
| Pair | Sydney, before Tokyo | Tokyo | London and New York |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUD/USD | 4.3 | 4.9 | 6.9 |
| NZD/USD | 4.2 | 4.4 | 5.7 |
| AUD/JPY | 8.7 | 8.8 | 10.8 |
| USD/JPY | 9.3 | 9.3 | 10.9 |
| EUR/USD | 3.8 | 4.8 | 7.6 |
| GBP/USD | 4.7 | 6.3 | 10.9 |
Average move per hour, close to close, in pips, weekdays only, from hourly market prices. For the Australian and New Zealand dollars the Sydney morning is not far off Tokyo: NZD/USD moved 4.2 pips an hour in it and 4.4 in Tokyo. USD/JPY is as busy as in Tokyo itself, because Japanese figures come out at 08:30 and 08:50 Tokyo time, just before Tokyo opens. EUR/USD has its quietest stretch of the day here.
Busy for the Australian dollar is relative, though: about 90% of its trading takes place outside Australia, by the Reserve Bank of Australia's count. And when the Bank for International Settlements looked into the sterling flash crash of 7 October 2016, it found that GBP/USD volumes and liquidity fall away outside the busy London hours, most of all in the early Asian hours.
The same measurement for every session is on the best time to trade forex.
What lands, and when
10:45 Wellington, 08:45 Sydney
New Zealand data
Stats NZ publishes most of its releases at 10:45 New Zealand time, consumer prices among them, before the Sydney business day starts.
11:30 Sydney
Australian data
The Australian Bureau of Statistics releases in general at 11:30 Canberra time, which is the same clock as Sydney: inflation, jobs and growth among them.
14:00 Wellington, 12:00 Sydney
Reserve Bank of New Zealand decisions
The official cash rate is announced at 2pm New Zealand time, with an online press conference an hour later.
14:30 Sydney
Reserve Bank of Australia decisions
The cash rate decision comes at 2.30pm on the second day of the board meeting, and the Governor's media conference at 3.30pm.
Wellington is two hours ahead of Sydney for most of the year, and three in the week between New Zealand moving to summer time on the last Sunday of September and Sydney following on the first Sunday of October.
Pairs with a reason to move
- AUD/USD and NZD/USD. The local data and both central banks land in the Sydney day, not in London. Even before Tokyo opens they moved 4.3 and 4.2 pips an hour.
- AUD/JPY and NZD/JPY. Both legs have news of their own early in the day, and both swing with the risk mood in Asian markets.
- AUD/NZD. The pair where both currencies are at home in this session, and where an RBA or RBNZ surprise shows most cleanly.
- Not EUR/USD or GBP/USD. EUR/USD moves 3.8 pips an hour here against 7.6 when London and New York are both open. Their news comes later.
The dates of the next decisions are on the RBA and RBNZ pages, what drives each currency on the Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar pages, and the session that follows Sydney is on the Tokyo session page.
The forex week opens in Sydney
Brokers such as FXCM reopen around 17:00 New York time on Sunday. That is Monday morning in Sydney: 09:00 while New York is on winter time and Sydney on summer time, 07:00 from April to September, and 08:00 in the weeks in between. Wellington is the first big city into the week.
Everything that happened over the weekend gets priced in those first minutes, so Monday's first price can sit well away from Friday's last. FXCM warns that liquidity is thin around the weekend and that prices can gap. We found no public data that measures spreads at the weekly open, so take that as a broker's experience rather than a number.
Sources
The moves per hour are our own measurement on hourly market prices, not an outside source.
Release times: Stats NZ, Release calendar; Australian Bureau of Statistics, Pre-release access policy (release time); Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Monetary Policy Review and OCR, October 2026; Reserve Bank of Australia, Media release 2025-02 on the time of decisions. Clock changes: NSW Government, Daylight saving in NSW; New Zealand Government, Daylight saving; GOV.UK, When do the clocks change?; European Commission, Summertime; NIST, Daylight saving time rules.
The Sunday reopening, from a broker: FXCM (a broker), How orders execute over the weekend. Where the Australian dollar trades: Reserve Bank of Australia, Bulletin February 2026: Developments in foreign exchange markets. Liquidity in the early Asian hours: BIS Markets Committee, The sterling flash event of 7 October 2016 (PDF).
Questions about the Sydney session
What time is the Sydney session in forex?
09:00 to 17:00 Sydney time. That is 22:00 to 06:00 UTC from early October to early April, when Sydney is on summer time, and 23:00 to 07:00 UTC from April to October. In India it is 03:30 to 11:30 from October to April, and 04:30 to 12:30 from April to October. Live session clock
What is the Sydney session time in South Africa?
00:00 to 08:00 South African time from early October to early April, and 01:00 to 09:00 from April to October. South Africa keeps one clock all year, so the session only moves when Sydney changes its clocks, on the first Sunday of October and the first Sunday of April.
Which pairs move in the Sydney session?
The ones with an Australian, New Zealand or Japanese leg. From 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026, in the hours between the New York close and the Tokyo open, AUD/USD moved 4.3 pips an hour and USD/JPY 9.3, while EUR/USD moved 3.8, its quietest stretch of the day. Every session, measured
When does the forex week open?
With Monday morning in Sydney. Retail brokers such as FXCM reopen around 17:00 New York time on Sunday, which is 22:00 UTC while New York is on winter time and 21:00 UTC while it is on summer time: between 07:00 and 09:00 on Monday in Sydney, depending on the season. Wellington, usually two hours ahead of Sydney, is the first city into the week. Forex market hours
Is the Sydney session the same as the Asian session?
Not quite, though they overlap. Sydney opens one or two hours before Tokyo, depending on the season, and then trades alongside it. Most traders mean the stretch from the Tokyo open until London arrives when they say the Asian session, so the Sydney morning comes just before it. The Tokyo session