BSE sees record derivatives turnover

MUMBAI: A series of trades in three put option contracts in the sensex on Tuesday helped the BSE take a lead over its bigger rival NSE in terms of turnover in the derivatives segment. Although for years NSE had been the leader in both cash and derivatives segments, of late BSE, with new and much faster trading technology has been attracting investors to trade on its platform, market sources said.
In addition, BSE’s liquidity enhancement schemes (LES), which incentivize brokers to generate volumes on the BSE, is also attracting volumes on the bourse, they said.
In Tuesday’s market, BSE recorded a turnover of Rs 3.36 lakh crore on its derivatives segment, an all-time record, compared to Rs 3.20 lakh crore on the NSE.
Of the total turnover on BSE, 99% came from three options contracts: the sensex 24,200, sensex 24,400 and sensex 24,600 put options, all expiring on Thursday. Of the three, the put options with a strike price 24,400 alone traded for a notional value of Rs 2.06 lakh crore.
Market players pointed out a similar type of trading on May 7 when nifty call options with a strike price of 7,900 for December expiry were traded on for a notional turnover of Rs 1,656 crore.
“Measuring these transactions by way of notional turnover can be misleading many times as the net premium paid/received for the trade is not more than Rs 60 crore (assuming the entire trade on BSE happened at the highest price of the day). Similarly, even in the case of nifty 7900 call with December expiry, the net premium paid/received was not more than Rs 200 crore,” said K Anant Rao, an independent market analyst.