SEBI approves stock, commodities trade convergence on exchanges from Oct 2018

The market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Thursday announced that it has approved the decision to allow all exchanges to do securities as well as commodity derivatives trading from October 1, 2018.

"When FMC was merged with SEBI in September 2015 there were different timelines which were fixed for different items. And so by going with those timelines, we saw that by October 2018 perhaps will be the right time after three years of a merger of FMC with SEBI that all exchanges should be able to deal with commodity derivatives or other securities. So that has been approved by the Board," SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi said in a press conference in Mumbai.

This important step will allow exchanges like the NSE, BSE and MCX to do both equity and commodity trading on their platforms.

Commenting on the development, Ashishkumar Chauhan, MD and CEO, Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) said that the BSE welcomes SEBI's decision to allow convergence of Stock and Commodity Exchanges from October 2018.

"BSE believes this decision will help participants in various markets a highly regulated, safer, more transparent trading, clearing and settlement framework when implemented fully. BSE has geared up itself for long to provide these facilities to its more than 3.71 crores registered investor," Chauhan said in an official statement.