Sebi fixes minimum staggered delivery period of 5 days for commodity futures

Capital markets regulator Sebi on Friday fixed the minimum duration of the staggered delivery period at five working days for all commodity futures in order to bring uniformity in the timeline across exchanges.

Staggered delivery period is the duration during which sellers or buyers having open position may submit an intention to give or take the delivery of the contract.

At present, there is no uniformity in the length of staggered delivery period for commodity futures contracts across exchanges even for the same commodities, according to the Sebi circular.

"All compulsory delivery commodity futures contracts (agriculture commodities as well as non-agriculture commodities) shall have a staggered delivery period," the circular mentioned.

"The minimum duration of staggered delivery period shall be at least five working days," the circular stated.

It clarified that the exchanges shall have the flexibility to set higher duration of staggered delivery period for a commodity futures contract after taking into account factors such as historical open interest, volume near expiry etc.

In this regard, for the benefit of the market participants, the exchanges have been asked to jointly prepare and publish a detailed framework outlining various circumstances and factors which would require longer duration of staggered delivery period in a commodity.

While giving a detailed framework, the markets watchdog said the seller or buyer having open position shall have the option of submitting an intention of giving or taking delivery on any day during the staggered delivery period.

To ensure that all buyers have an equal opportunity of being selected to receive delivery irrespective of the size or value of the position, exchanges shall allocate received intentions to give delivery during the day on each day, except for the expiry day.

"However, preference may be given to buyers who have marked an intention of taking delivery, which may be based on aspects such as location, quality etc," Sebi said.

Besides, pay-in and pay-out for the allocated deliveries shall happen within two working days after allocation.

All open positions after expiry of the contract will result in compulsory delivery and will be settled at final settlement price of the respective contract while "pay-in and pay-out shall happen latest by the second working day after expiry.