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Informist, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026

 

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--BSE: Have sought RBI approval for two debt indices
--CONTEXT: BSE management's comments in post-earnings concall with analysts
--BSE: To look at commodities play once resilient in equity derivatives
--Raising STT charges has had limited impact on volumes
--BSE: Do not find any specific impact on Sensex futures due to STT changes
--BSE: STT changes may not show severe impact, options likely to grow slower

 

By Shweta and Sunil Raghu

 

MUMBAI/AHMEDABAD – BSE Ltd. does not see any specific impact of changes in the securities transaction tax on Sensex futures, the management said in a post-earnings analyst conference call. The management said that the STT adjustments by the finance minister in the last Union Budget also appears to be realigning investors' focus towards long-term equity investment and "healthier market liquidity". 

 

"At this point of time, in comparison to the Sensex options, Sensex futures are still at very nascent stages of growth...If it had been a significant chunk, there is a probability for us to rethink on what could be the strategy for futures," the management said. 

 

During the press conference after presenting the Union Budget for 2026-27 (Apr-Mar), Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said the government has raised the securities transaction tax on futures and options to discourage speculative trading. The budget proposed raising the securities transaction tax on futures contract transactions to 0.05% from 0.02% and that on options premium and exercise of options to 0.15?ch from 0.1% and 0.125%, respectively.  

 

According to the management, the recent increase in the securities transaction tax charges has had "limited impact on volumes".

 

"Whenever STT (securities transaction tax) charges are increased for options, it has not had any meaningful impact on the volumes and volumes have continued as before," the management said, adding that the way the futures STT (securities transaction tax) is structured is "more to encourage people, particularly retailers, to think of participating in longer term equity and for merchants and others to think about longer term futures instead of monthly futures."

 

At this point of time, options are in the growth trajectory for various reasons. The management said, "Because of that, while the growth may be slightly slower compared to what it was, I think it will still grow and may not show any severe impact because of the STT (securities transaction tax) increase...maybe we have to wait-and-watch to see what type of reaction the market has."

 

BSE's consolidated net profit for the reporting quarter was INR 6.02 billion, up nearly 8% sequentially. The exchange's net profit rose nearly 174% on year. The exchange's revenue from operations was INR 12.44 billion, up over 16% on quarter.

 

Giving its quarterly updates, the management said the exchange has obtained Reserve Bank of India's "approval for two debt indices, expanding our product suite beyond equities."

 

"Overall, this quarter, we recorded our strongest performance to date across multiple dimensions, including top line and bottom line extension, new listings, transaction-linked revenues, clearing house activity, market data services and index-related revenues, underscoring scalability, resilience and the operational depth of our diversified liquid model," the management added.

 

On being asked about the exchange's plan to enter the commodities market, the management said it entered the derivates segment "somewhere around 30-plus months back. We started it from scratch...slowly and steadily we are reaching there, and we do recognise the fact that commodities are very important underlines from a nation's perspective and its overall economic development."

 

"...once we feel well stabilised in what we have started to do, once we feel we are resilient, we will certainly be embarking on all the available opportunities, including commodities, with the same seriousness with which we took derivatives for equities," the management added.  End

 

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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