By Jayshree P Upadhyay
MUMBAI (Reuters) -India’s BSE said it will discontinue weekly derivative contracts linked to Bankex and Sensex 50, indicating the stock exchange operator will retain only contracts linked with its benchmark BSE Sensex, an index of 30 bluechip stocks.
The move follows the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s order on Tuesday that requires exchanges to cut down the number of weekly options contracts available to investors to one from Nov. 20.
The new rules were put in place to curb the recent spurt in retail investors trading options, which the regulator and the government view as a risk to household finances.
A SEBI study showed that individual traders made net losses totalling 1.81 trillion rupees ($21.57 billion) in futures and options in the three years to March 2024, with only 7.2% making a profit.
Reuters reported earlier in the day, citing sources, that BSE would continue weekly derivatives linked to the BSE Sensex index due to its higher trading volumes.
“BSE Sensex has much larger volumes as compared to Bankex. It makes sense to retain weekly expiry on the more active contract,” one of the sources had told Reuters.
As per exchange data, BSE Sensex contributed to 85% of derivatives trading volumes in the financial year ended March 2024.
The notional turnover for BSE’s index options, including all three – Bankex, Sensex 50 and BSE Sensex – stood at 2,603 trillion rupees in August.
Bankex is the benchmark index of 10 banking companies listed on the BSE, and Sensex 50 is the index of top 50 companies on the stock exchange.
Shares of the BSE, which fell as much as 3% in early trading, settled 2.5% higher as SEBI’s final rules reduced expiry-day margins to 2% compared to 8% proposed earlier.
The NSE, India’s largest stock exchange, which has four weekly options linked to the Nifty, Bank Nifty, Fin Nifty and Nifty Mid-cap, is yet to make an announcement regarding which options it wants to retain.
The notional turnover for index options for the NSE was 7,768 trillion rupees in August.
“Nifty and Bank Nifty are equally popular among traders. The exchange is canvassing feedback from traders before it decides on which weekly expiry to retain,” said a person familiar with NSE’s thinking.
NSE did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
According to brokerage firm IIFL Securities, NSE’s biggest contract is Bank Nifty, contributing 50% of option premium volumes.
($1 = 83.9160 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Jayshree P Upadhyay; Editing by Varun H K and Shinjini Ganguli)
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