On October 9, 2024, the National Stock Exchange said it would continue offering weekly index options only for the Nifty 50 Index (NIFTY) from November 20, 2024. It is done with three other weekly index options.
"As mentioned in the SEBI circular, each Exchange may provide derivatives contracts for only one of its benchmark index with weekly expiry and shall be effective from November 20, 2024., i.e. from this date weekly derivatives contracts would only be available on one benchmark index for each Exchange. Accordingly, the Exchange will continue to make weekly index options available only on the Nifty 50 Index (NIFTY)," NSE said.
Henceforth, weekly index option contracts shall be discontinued in the 3 indices namely, Nifty Bank (BANKNIFTY), Nifty Midcap Select (MIDCPNIFTY) and Nifty Financial Services (FINNIFTY).
Last Weekly Expiry of These Index Options
The last trading date and the last weekly index option expiry available for these indices shall be as follows:
Nifty Bank (BANKNIFTY) will have its last expiry date/last trading date on November 13, 2024. Nifty Midcap Select (MIDCPNIFTY) will have its last expiry date/last trading date on November 18, 2024. Nifty Financial Services (FINNIFTY) will have its last expiry date/last trading date on November 19, 2024.
No new weekly index option contracts will be generated with an expiry date beyond the last expiry date for the respective index as mentioned above, the stock exchange informed.
Discontinuation of weekly derivatives contracts on these indices is part of measures to strengthen equity index derivatives framework for increased investor protection and market stability, NSE informed.
Sebi found that a number of weekly expires have to be curtailed because the abundance of weekly expiries for index option contracts led to 90 per cent trading volume on the expiry day, with significant concentration in the last hour of trading, when more option buyers behave as if in casinos. Among other measures, Sebi also ruled that the minimum trading amount for derivatives will be increased from Rs 5-10 Lakh to Rs 15 Lakh, by altering the size and value of the contracts.
