Record date: The record date is when the company checks its records to identify the eligible shareholders for corporate action. Shareholders holding the shares in their demat accounts on the record date are eligible for corporate actions such as entitlement of rights shares, bonus shares, stock splits, dividends, etc.
Ex-Date: The ex-date is when a stock starts trading without the benefit of a corporate action i.e., ex-benefit. The ex-date and the record date for all the corporate actions are on the same day since all the instruments are moved to the T+1 settlement cycle. A stock will trade with the benefits of the corporate action or cum-benefit (i.e., cum-rights, cum-dividend, etc.) until the ex-date or the record date.
