
In good news for equity derivatives traders, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has allowed stock exchanges to extend timing of equity derivatives trading till 11:55 pm with effect from October 1, 2018.
The permission is subject to stock exchanges and clearing corporations have in place risk management system and infrastructure commensurate to the trading hours.
In case, stock exchanges plan to extend the trade timings beyond the extant trading hours, they would require prior approval from Sebi, according to the circular.
The bourses would also be required to submit a detailed proposal, including the framework for risk management, settlement process, monitoring of positions, availability of manpower, system capability and surveillance systems.
Speaking on the move, HDFC securities Head of Compliance and Whole-time Director Ashish Rathi said that 'the extended timing for equity derivatives in our view is an enabling provision by SEBI for exchange timings to be between 9 am to 11.55 pm'.
"In our perspective, this move will align with commodities market timings. However, we will have to wait for Exchanges to implement the same with prior approval of SEBI. Whether the extended timings will be for all securities or securities in equity derivatives market will trade only till the time underlying equities trade and only indexes will be allowed to trade for extended hours," he further said.
In December, the Sebi board had announced much-awaited integration of stocks and commodities trading on a single exchange from October this year.
Currently, commodity derivatives are traded on separate exchanges, which include MCX and NCDEX.
Sebi has already been regulating the commodities derivative market after the merger of erstwhile Forward Markets Commission (FMC) with it.
In his budget for 2017-18, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed that the commodities and securities derivative markets would be integrated further by integrating the participants, brokers and operational frameworks.
With PTI inputs