NSE, Singapore Exchange Defer Launch Of SGX Nifty Futures At IFSC
The IFSC-SGX connect will mark the beginning of moving overseas Nifty trades to Gujarat International Finance Tec-City.
NSE IFSC and Singapore Stock Exchange have deferred the launch of Nifty Futures scheduled for July 15.
SGX had informed its members on July 1 that it plans to shift trading to IFSC NSE for Nifty derivative products to July 15.
"With this deferment, SGX Member Firms connected to GIFT Connect will not be able to route orders to NSE IFSC for trading of NSE IFSC products via the Connect," SGX said in a communication to all its clients and vendors.
The launch of SGX Nifty Futures at IFSC was to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The event had to be deferred due to heavy rains in Gujarat and Maharashtra and the Indian Meteorological Department has issued a warning for the next few days.
The IFSC-SGX connect will mark the beginning of moving overseas Nifty trades to Gujarat International Finance Tec-City or GIFT City. The Singapore bourse has incorporated a special purpose vehicle—the SGX India Connect IFSC Pvt.—for the arrangement.
Once it goes live, orders for the Nifty-based derivatives contracts from trading members based in Singapore will be routed via SGX-ICI to NSE IFSC for trading and execution.
The trades will be subsequently cleared and settled through NSE IFSC Clearing Corp. Ltd., with SGX-Derivatives Clearing as the central counterparty.
The connect will offer futures and options for benchmark Nifty 50 Index, Nifty Bank Index, Nifty IT Index and Nifty Financial Services Index. All F&O contracts will be listed on NSE IFSC.
The connect was necessitated after Indian bourses decided to stop providing pricing data to SGX, to protect derivative volumes from moving offshore. The exchanges later agreed to rout trading through the International Financial Services Centre in GIFT City.
The connect started testing negotiated large trades in May. Volumes and value began inching up since mid-May, with the total value of trades at $25 billion last month. That's about a quarter of the trading volume of Nifty products on SGX.
Trading Hours
The connect will operate in two sessions—from 8 a.m. till 5 p.m. India Standard Time; and from 5.02 p.m. till 2.45 a.m. IST—in line with the trading hours of U.S. markets.
The exchanges NSE IFSC and SGX are yet to inform of a new date for the launch.
