Rupee futures in Gift City IFSC: Sebi caps position limit at $1 bn

The market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India on Monday capped position limit at $1 billion for market participants trading in the Gift city international financial services centres (IFSC) for currency futures and options contracts involving rupee.

This comes two days after budget announcement for the same and two weeks after the RBI issued its circular allowing the rupee futures and options on Gift city exchanges making available for global players.

The aim is to bring offshore rupee trading at Gift city. Offshore market or overseas heading in rupee exchange rate market has grown bigger than domestic market, which was worrying the central bank. With Gift city based IFSC started getting traction, it was decided to permit rupee derivatives there.

The circular said that the gross open position limits for trading Members (proprietary basis as well as clients’ position), Institutional Investors and Eligible Foreign Investors will be across all contracts and should not exceed 15 per cent of the total open interest (position) or $1 billion equivalent, whichever is higher.

However, for other Clients, sebi has said that the, ‘Gross open position across all contracts not to exceed 6% of the total open interest or USD 100 million equivalent, whichever is higher.’