Under the directive, Sebi has shifted the expiry day for the BSE Sensex to Thursday from the current Tuesday, as the mandate requires that both exchanges cannot have their expiries on the same day.
The decision follows a circular issued by the capital markets regulator in the last week of May, which instructed exchanges to select either Tuesday or Thursday as the expiry day for equity derivatives.
The directive is aimed at reducing expiry-day volatility and bringing uniformity across exchanges.
Prior to the May circular, the exchanges had the freedom to set expiry days for their derivatives products, which had led to a spread of expiry days throughout the week.
Following consultations and feedback from a March 2025 discussion paper, Sebi’s Secondary Market Advisory Committee (SMAC) deliberated on the matter and recommended limiting expiry options to reduce market hyperactivity.Under that circular, Sebi said that each exchange can continue to offer one weekly benchmark index options contract on their chosen day. For all other derivatives, such as benchmark index futures, non-benchmark index options, and single stock contracts, the minimum contract tenor will now be one month, and they must expire on the last Tuesday or last Thursday of the month, depending on the exchange’s selection.
MORE TO COME….