NSE's global indices futures get more takers in A'bad

At a time when global equity markets keep fluttering amid economic uncertainty, Ahmedabad region has emerged as one of the early takers of the futures trading in global indices S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) launched by National Stock Exchange (NSE) later last month.

NSE launched the derivatives contracts for the two indices on August 29, 2011. Since launch the exchange has achieved an average daily volume of more than Rs 100 crore.

As per the latest data provided by NSE about the regions generating highest volumes from the newly launched contracts, Ahmedabad region stood fourth ahead of Chennai region in percentage share to the total traded volumes. Ahmedabad region holds 4.22 per cent share in the total traded volumes, while Chennai region holds 3.28 per cent sharer.

Mumbai region contributes maximum to the daily traded volumes with over 53 per cent share, followed by Kolkata region and Delhi region with their share of 22.48 per cent and 16.72 per cent respectively.

"Within days of the launch of futures contracts in global indices, our average daily volume has crossed Rs 100 crore. Ahmedabad region seems tech-savvy and enterprising, hence we are witnessing more than 4 per cent share of total traded volumes coming from traders here, This is more than Chennai region's share of slightly more than 3 per cent," said R Sundararaman, senior vice president, NSE.

In its analysis of trades taken place during August 29 to September 13, 2011 average daily open interest (OI) stood at Rs 58.32 crore, of which Ahmedabad region holds 5 per cent share.

NSE offers futures contracts in DJIA and S&P 500 indices and options contracts for S&P 500. Commenting on the contracts under global indices, Sundararaman informed that the contracts come with ease of access to US indices, i.e. S&P 500 and DJIA making it convenient for traders to trade on these indices in Indian currency.

"We are getting good response from traders across the country and we are hopeful to do even better in days to come. We hope to have retail participants as the smaller size of the contract would attract them too," said Sundararaman, who was in Ahmedabad recently for an awareness campaign on derivatives trading in DJIA and S&P.

Commenting on the collaboration with NSE, Craig Lazzara, senior director, S&P Indices termed the initiative as a landmark development. "We are very happy with the collaboration and expect the volumes to grow as awareness spreads. Also, this is for the first time that our index has traded in currency other than the US Dollar, which itself is a landmark event," said Lazzara.

Currently, NSE has decided not to levy transaction fees on the derivatives contracts of global indices for a period of six months – starting from August 29, 2011 till February 29, 2012.