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Informist, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026

 

By Rajesh Gajra

 

MUMBAI – Traders and investors will be able to enter a single order for a higher maximum quantity limit per order on equity index derivatives contracts without the trading system rejecting it on the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. Monday onwards. The biggest impact of the relaxation would be for Nifty India FPI 150 index where the limit is being increased seven times. The NSE had issued a circular Thursday sharply revising upwards the quantity freeze limits per single order for derivatives contracts on Nifty 50, Nifty Next 50, Nifty Midcap Select, Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services, and Nifty India FPI 150 indices.

 

A quantify freeze limit on a particular index's futures or options contract is the maximum number of quantity of futures or options of that index a trader can buy or sell in a single order. All orders entered in having quantity of more than the quantity freeze limit gets automatically rejected by the exchange's trading system.

 

The change by NSE is expected to benefit foreign portfolio investors and large proprietary traders who take large order positions on index derivatives on the NSE. It won't be of any help to an average retail trader whose per order size is much lower.

 

The NSE circular of Thursday specified a fixed quantify freeze limit of 3,510 for Nifty 50 futures or options, 53,900 for Nifty India FPI 150, 1,125 for Nifty Next 50, 5,760 for Nifty Midcap Select, 1,440 for Nifty Bank, and 3,240 for Nifty Financial Services. Prior to the change, the NSE had kept the quantity freeze limits for these index derivatives contracts based on the index level ranges. The limits were 8,500 for an index whose value fell between nil and 5750, 5,500 for index level of 5750-8625, 4,200 for index level of 8625-11500, 2,800 for index level of 11500-17250, 1,800 for index level of 17250-27500, 1,200 for index level of 27500-40000, and 900 for index level of 40000-55000.

 

Thursday Nifty 50 had closed at 22421.95, which meant a quantity freeze limit for futures or options contract on the index was 1,800 as per the limit applicable then. The new limit effective Monday of 3,510, is therefore, nearly double than the previous limit. In value terms, at Thursday's closing value, the revised quantity freeze limit in a single Nifty 50 futures or options order will translate into a contract value of INR 78.70 million, up from INR 40.36 million as per the earlier limit. In terms of contract lot size, the Nifty 50 futures or options maximum single order quantity would be 54 lots Monday onwards, up from 27 lots as on Thursday.

 

For Nifty India FPI 150, Thursday's closing value was 1,456, which meant a quantity freeze limit of 8,500 for a single order on the index's futures or options contract. The new limit, effective Monday, is 6.34 times higher at 53900. In value terms, based on Thursday's closing value, the new limit for Nifty India FPI 150 would be INR 78.48 million, up from INR 12.38 million. In terms of contract lot size, it would jump up seven times to 49 lots from 7 lots.

 

According to data provided by Zerodha Broking Ltd. in a post on its X account Friday, the quantity freeze limits, in terms of number of lots, would increase to 45 from 24 for Nifty Next 50, more than double to 48 from 23 for Nifty Midcap Select, more than double to 48 from 20 for Nifty Bank, and increase to 54 from 30 for Nifty Financial Services.  End

 

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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