Sebi Panel For Margin Trading In Stock Markets

The advisory committee on derivatives of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) today proposed that margin trading should be introduced in the stock markets.

There was also a suggestion that bank funds could be channelled for this purpose through the stock exchange clearing house/corporations. Sebi also said that the exposure limits that are currently linked to the exposure in the cash segment need to be rationalised.

The committee, at its first meeting today, recommended that banks and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) be allowed to trade in all approved derivative products. At present, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) permits FIIs to deal only in index futures contracts.

The policy recommendations of the committee, like the introduction of stock futures, will be taken up to the Sebi board before implementation, a Sebi release said.

To encourage larger participation of the existing broker members in the derivatives market, the committee proposed that a new category of clearing members may be incorporated in the regulation with lower balance sheet net worth requirement without any change in the liquid net worth requirement. Such members, however, will not be permitted to clear the trades of other trading members.

The committee also feels that the physical settlement of stock option contracts may be introduced at an early date to provide inter-linkages in the prices of the stock in the cash and the derivative markets.

For this purpose, a sub-group consisting of Sebi and two exchanges -- BSE & NSE -- was constituted to work out the modalities for the settlement of exercise and assignment.

Further, on the issue of fungibility of collateral deposited by members between the cash and derivative segment, the committee asked NSE & BSE to legally examine all the issues linked to the subject and to submit a legal opinion to Sebi.

The committee felt the introduction of options on more stocks may adversely affect the liquidity in the existing stock option contracts. It, therefore, decided that the number of option contracts should be increased after the market attains maturity.

The committee felt that individual stock futures were a logical extension of the current sequence of products available in the derivative market. This was also recommended earlier by the JR Varma group on deferral products under rolling settlement. The committee felt that stock futures should be introduced early and that a streamlined stock lending/borrowing system and segregated short selling facility to institutional participants would facilitate stock futures.

The committee felt that clarity was needed in the Sebi guidelines with respect to the participation of mutual funds in the derivative market. The capital market watchdog will issue a detailed clarification with regards to the existing provisions so as to include permission to write covered options.