NSE Seeks SEBI Nod To Extend Derivatives Trading Hours. Here's Why

The National Stock Exchange has sought the Securities and Exchange Board of India's approval to hold evening trading sessions in the equity derivatives segment.

India's largest exchange is planning to extend trading hours of index futures and options to continue between 6 and 9 p.m., Sriram Krishnan, head of business development, told BQ Prime's Sajeet Manghat in an interview.

Equity derivatives trading in the extended hours will be considered as the next day's volumes to avoid complications, Krishnan said.

"Whatever expiry is applicable to the next day's trade...applies to the trades conducted between 6 and 9 p.m. on the previous day," he said. It will take "at least a couple of months" for these extended hours for derivative trading to go live.

Krishnan said there are global events that tend to have an impact on India's capital markets. "The idea behind these extended hours is to take one small step towards what the other global exchanges and other advanced countries have already accomplished."

India's largest stock exchange is currently considering only index-based futures and options for trading in extended hours, which will not impact the "interoperability" of other exchanges, he said.

"The operating landscape has totally changed between 2020 and today. Covid has brought in a level of technological sophistication that was possibly nonexistent before that period," he said.

While the cash market will continue at its regular time, extended hours in the derivatives markets would allow investors to "hedge their portfolio risk in case there is a global event that is likely to have a cascading effect on the Indian capital markets".

Krishnan underscored that there is no glide path yet to extend these hours beyond 9 p.m. "We don't have a fixed agenda in mind," he said, adding that the exchange is guided by what stakeholders want.

"The majority of the people are happy with 6–9 p.m.," he said. "We'll take stock after a few months of going live, and we'll again go back to the consultation process."

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