Govt should liberalise & develop spot, future currency mkts

With trading in currency futures showing a considerable increase in August to March period, the Economic Survey today asked the government to liberlise and develop spot and futures currency markets.     

The survey suggested the government should,"liberalise and develop spot and futures currency markets (exchange traded), raise position limits for domestic companies and allow trading in Special drawing Rights (SDR)and SDR currencies."    

During August-March 2008-09, as many as 32.73 million currency derivative contracts were traded at NSE and the total traded value of the contracts during the same period was Rs 1,62,563 crore, the survey tabled in Parliament said.     

"The number of contracts and traded value in the currency futures have increased considerably," the survey said.     

Since August 2008, the trading value each month has been on a rise continuously from just Rs 291 crore at the beginning to as much as Rs 50,817 crore in March, this year.     

Further, the average daily trading value has also shown an increase from month-to month, it added. The average daily trading value has risen to Rs 2,675 crore in March as compared to Rs 262 crore in September last year.     

Trading in currency futures segment commenced in NSE in August, 2008 and later BSE and Multi Commodity Exchange of India were also given permission to trade in currency derivatives.