In a major update for India’s derivatives market, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) has officially received approval from SEBI to shift its weekly expiry day to Tuesday. This marks a significant change in the trading calendar for NSE’s index futures and options (F&O), replacing the earlier Thursday expiry.
Why the Change?
In May, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) introduced new rules that limit the expiry of benchmark index F&O contracts to only Tuesdays or Thursdays. Each stock exchange was asked to choose one of the two days and submit their preference to SEBI by June 15. Importantly, SEBI’s directive also made it mandatory for exchanges to seek prior approval before making such changes.
Until now, exchanges could decide expiry days independently, often leading to overlaps and increased market volatility. SEBI believes this step will reduce concentration risks, ease expiry-day pressure, and prevent abrupt trading spikes that could negatively affect investors or the market.
NSE Chose Tuesday, BSE Will Use Thursday
With the new framework in place, NSE has opted for Tuesday as its official expiry day for weekly index options, while the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has been allotted Thursday for its weekly contract expiries.
What Else is Changing?
As per SEBI’s new regulations:
All equity derivatives such as single stock futures and options, non-benchmark indices, and benchmark index futures must now have a minimum one-month duration.
These contracts will now expire only in the last week of each month on the exchange’s chosen expiry day—Tuesday for NSE and Thursday for BSE.
Exchanges and clearing corporations have been instructed to update their systems and internal rules accordingly.
This structured expiry system is aimed at bringing uniformity, efficiency, and lower volatility to India’s fast-growing derivatives market, which has seen a massive surge in retail participation over the past few years.
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