Currency derivatives' turnover falls over 33% in February

MUMBAI: Currency derivatives turnover at the nation's three bourses fell by more than 33 per cent to Rs 4.80 lakh crore during February over the preceding month.

The three bourses - NSE, BSE and MCX-SX - together had recorded a currency derivative turnover of Rs 7.21 lakh crore in January 2015, latest data showed.

Currency derivative volumes on the three stock exchanges also plunged by nearly 33.45 per cent to 7.63 crore in February as against 11.46 crore in January, 2015.

Currency derivative contracts allow investors to take position on change in the foreign exchange rates between pairs of two currencies, such as rupee and dollar.

Individually, the monthly turnover at NSE fell by 37.5 per cent to Rs 2.25 lakh crore last month as compared to Rs 3.60 lakh crore in January, Sebi said.

The number of currency derivative contracts on NSE fell to 3.55 crore in February from 5.68 crore in previous month.

The monthly turnover of currency derivatives on BSE nearly halved to Rs 2.25 lakh crore in February from January this year.

A little over 3.60 crore contracts were traded on the BSE in February as against 5.10 crore in January.

The currency derivative turnover for MCX-SX stood at about Rs 29,927 crore in February, a fall of 31 per cent from the previous month. The volumes of contracts on MCX-SX declined to 45.16 lakh from 68.25 lakh on a month-on-month basis.

Capital markets regulator Sebi in its latest report said that United Stock Exchange of India (USE) which was also providing platform for currency derivative trades has stopped providing trading facilities to its members with effect from December 30, 2014 pursuant to the proposed amalgamation of USE with BSE.

"All contracts irrespective of the expiry date were closed on December 29, 2014 and the trading platform was also halted on the same day," the regulator said.