What is the difference between Record Date and Ex-date?

Record date: Record date is the cut-off date, on which, an individual must have the company’s shares in his Demat account to be considered as eligible shareholders to receive benefits i.e. right entitlement, stock split, bonus shares, dividend, etc.

To be an eligible shareholder, one must purchase the shares of a company at least 2 working days before the record date, so that, the shares will be settled and credited to the Demat account within the T+2 settlement cycle.

Ex-Date: The Ex-date is decided by the stock exchange rules that generally falls 1 or 2 days prior to the record date. An individual must purchase a company’s shares before the ex-date to be an eligible shareholder for any corporate announcement i.e. dividend rights, buyback, right issue, etc. In other words, if a person invests in shares of a company on or after the ex-date then he will not be entitled to get any benefits under corporate actions. As per the settlement cycle, the stock is credited within T+2 days, however, if there is any clearing & settlement holiday then shares will get credited into the Demat account the next working day.

Example:

• For instance, a company's dividend announcement record date is 21 January.
• The ex-date will be 2 days prior i.e. 19 January and after the date, the stock will trade as ex-corporate action.
• Investors who have purchased the company’s shares on or before 19 Jan will be eligible shareholders for the dividend entitlement.