More Stories

Informist, Monday, May 26, 2025

 

--SEBI: Expiry of all equity F&O contracts of an exchange to be Tue or Thu

--SEBI: Monthly equity F&O expiry to be Tue or Thu in last week of month

 

MUMBAI – A stock exchange will be allowed to fix expiry day for all equity derivatives contracts only on Tuesday or Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Board of India said in a circular Monday. The market regulator said such spacing of expiry days through the week will cut concentration risk and to deter "too many expiry days" from reviving "expiry day hyperactivity" and jeopardise market stability.

 

The one weekly benchmark index on which every stock exchange can offer index option contracts will need to have expiry on the day, Tuesday or Thursday, chosen by it. Apart from weekly index options contracts, an exchange will be allowed to have equity futures and options contracts on indices and stocks with a minimum tenor of one month and the expiry will have to be in the last week of the month on its chosen day, Tuesday or Thursday, according to SEBI.

 

Stock exchanges will have to get prior approval of the SEBI for modifying the settlement day of their derivatives contracts from their existing ones, according to the circular. SEBI has given time till Jun. 15 to stock exchanges to submit their proposals to SEBI and operationalise Monday's circular.

 

In October, SEBI had banned the stock exchanges from having weekly derivatives on more than one index and the index on which it could have weekly derivatives had to be a benchmark index and not a sectoral or thematic index. SEBI's justification was that there was over-trading in the weekly contracts on the expiry day and it posed risks to systemic stability.

 

SEBI had issued a consultation paper on Mar. 27 with the expiry day and other related proposals that match the final provisions in Monday's circular. The consultation paper came on the back of BSE Ltd. and National Stock Exchange of India changing the expiry day for their weekly index options contracts--Sensex in case of BSE and Nifty 50 in case of NSE.

 

The first move was made by the BSE when it changed the expiry day for its weekly Sensex options to Tuesday from Friday with effect from Jan. 1. On Mar. 4, the NSE announced that it will be shifting the expiry day of its weekly Nifty options contracts to Monday from Thursday, but later rolled back the move after SEBI issued the consultation paper.  End

 

Reported by Rajesh Gajra

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.