Evolution of Derivatives in India
Commodities futures’ trading in India was initiated long back in 1950s; however, the
1960s marked a period of great decline in futures trading. Market was closed usually because
different commodities’ prices increases were attributed to speculation on these markets.
Accordingly, the Central Government imposed the ban on trading in derivatives in 1969 under
a notification issue. The late 1990s shows this signs of opposite trends—a large scale revival
of futures markets in India, and hence, the Central Government revoked the ban on futures
trading in October, 1995, The Civil Supplies Ministry agreed in principle for starting of futures
trading in Basmati rice, further, in 1996 the Government granted permission to the Indian
Pepper and Spice Trade Association to convert its Pepper Futures Exchange into an
International Pepper Exchange. As such, on November 17, 1997, India’s first international
futures exchange at Kochi, known as the India Pepper and Spice Trade Association—
International Commodity Exchange (IPSTA-ICE) was established.
Similarly, the Cochin Oil Millers Association, in June 1996, demanded the
introduction of futures trading in coconut oils. The Central Minister for Agriculture announced
in June 1996 that he was in favour of introduction of futures trading both domestic and
international. Further, a new coffee futures exchange (The Coffee Futures Exchange of India)
is being started at Bangalore. In August, 1997, the Central Government proposed that Indian
companies with commodity price exposures should be allowed to use foreign futures and
option markets. The trend is not confined to the commodity markets alone, it has initiated in
financial futures too.
The Reserve Bank of India set up the Sodhani Expert Group which recommended major
liberalization of the forward exchange market and had urged the setting up of rupee-based
derivatives in financial instruments. The RBI accepted several of its recommendations in
August, 1996. A landmark step taken in this regard when the Securities and Exchange Board
of India (SEBI) appointed a Committee named the Dr. L.C. Gupta Committee (LCGC)
by its resolution, dated November 18, 1996 in order to develop appropriate regulatory
framework for derivatives trading in India. While the Committee’s focus was on equity
derivatives but it had maintained a broad perspective of derivatives in general.
The Board of SEBI, on May 11, 1998, accepted the recommendations of the Dr. L.C.
Gupta Committee and approved introduction of derivatives trading in India in the phased
manner. The recommendation sequence is stock index futures, index options and options on
stocks. The Board also approved the ‘Suggestive Bye-Laws’ recommended by the Committee
for regulation and control of trading and settlement of derivatives contracts in India.
Subsequently, the SEBI appointed J.R. Verma Committee to look into the operational aspects
of derivatives markets. To remove the road-block of non-recognition of derivatives as
securities under Securities Contract Regulation Act, the Securities Law (Amendment) Bill, 1999
was introduced to bring about the much needed changes. Accordingly, in December, 1999,
the new framework has been approved and ‘Derivatives’ have been accorded the status of
‘Securities’. However, due to certain completion of formalities, the launch of the Index Futures
was delayed by more than two years. In June, 2000, the National Stock Exchange and the
Bombay Stock Exchange started stock index based futures trading in India. Further, the growth
of this market did not take off as anticipated. This is mainly attributed to the low awareness
about the product and mechanism among the market players and investors. The volumes,
however, are gradually picking up due to active interest of the institutional investors.
Major Recommendations of Dr. L.C. Gupta Committee
Before discussing the emerging structure of derivatives markets in India, let us have a
brief view of the important recommendations made by the Dr. L.C. Gupta Committee on the
introduction of derivatives markets in India. These are as under:
1. The Committee is strongly of the view that there is urgent need of introducing of
financial derivatives to facilitate market development and hedging in a most cost-
efficient way against market risk by the participants such as mutual funds and other
investment institutions.
2. There is need for equity derivatives, interest rate derivatives and currency
derivatives.
3. Futures trading through derivatives should be introduced in phased manner starting
with stock index futures, which will be followed by options on index and later options
on stocks. It will enhance the efficiency and liquidity of cash markets in equities
through arbitrage process.
4. There should be two-level regulation (regulatory framework for derivatives trading),
i.e., exchange level and SEBI level. Further, there must be considerable emphasis on
self regulatory competence of derivative exchanges under the overall supervision and
guidance of SEBI.
5. The derivative trading should be initiated on a separate segment of existing stock
exchanges having an independent governing council. The number of the trading
members will be limited to 40 percent of the total number. The Chairman of the
governing council will not be permitted to trade on any of the stock exchanges.
6. The settlement of derivatives will be through an independent clearing Corporation/
Clearing house, which will become counter-party for all trades or alternatively
guarantees the settlement of all trades. The clearing corporation will have adequate
risk containment measures and will collect margins through EFT.
7. The derivatives exchange will have on-line-trading and adequate surveillance
systems. It will disseminate trade and price information on real time basis through
two information vending networks. It should inspect 100 percent of members every
year.
8. There will be complete segregation of client money at the level of trading/clearing
member and even at the level of clearing corporation.
9. The trading and clearing member will have stringent eligibility conditions. At least two
persons should have passed the certification programme approved by the SEBI.
10. The clearing members should deposit minimum ` 50 lakh with clearing corporation
and should have a net worth of ` 3 crore.
11. Removal of the regulatory prohibition on the use of derivatives by mutual funds while
making the trustees responsible to restrict the use of derivatives by mutual funds only
to hedging and portfolio balancing and not for specification.
12. The operations of the cash market on which the derivatives market will be based,
needed improvement in many respects.
13. Creation of a Derivation Cell, a Derivative Advisory Committee, and Economic
Research Wing by SEBI.
14. Declaration of derivatives as ‘securities’ under Section 2 (h) of the SCRA and suitable
amendments in the notification issued by the Central Government in June, 1969
under Section 16 of the SCRA.
The SEBI Board approved the suggested Bye-Laws recommended by the L.C. Gupta
Committee for regulation and control of trading and settlement of derivatives contracts.
Derivatives Market in India
The most notable development concerning the secondary segment of the Indian
capital market is the introduction of derivatives trading in June 2000. SEBI approved
derivatives trading based on Futures Contracts at both BSE and NSE in accordance with the
rules/byelaws and regulations of the Stock Exchanges. A beginning with equity derivatives has
been made with the introduction of stock index futures by BSE and NSE. Stock Index Futures
contract allows for the buying and selling of the particular stock index for a specified price at
a specified future date.
Stock Index Futures, inter alia, help in overcoming the problem of asymmetries in
information. Information asymmetry is mainly a problem in individual stocks as it is unlikely
that a trader has market-wide private information. As such, the asymmetric information
component is not likely to be present in a basket of stocks. This provides another rationale for
trading in Stock Index Futures.
Also, trading in index derivatives involves low transaction cost in comparison with
trading in underlying individual stocks comparing the index. While the BSI’ introduced Stock
Index Futures for S&P CNX Nifty comprising 50 scripts. Stock Index Futures in India are
available with one month, two month and three month maturities While derivatives trading
based on the Sensitive Index (Sensex) commenced at the BSI on June 9, 2000,.,derivatives
trading based on S&P CNX Nifty commenced at the NSE on June 12, 2000. SIT is the first
attempt in the development of derivatives trading.
The product base has been increased to include trading in futures arid options on S&P
CNX Nifty Index, futures and options on CNX IT index, Bank Nifty Index and single securities
(118 stock as stipulated by SEBI) and futures on interest rate.
The index futures and index options contracts traded on NSE are based on S&P CNX
Nifty Index, CNX IT Index and the CNX Bank Index, while stock futures and options are based
on individual securities. Stock Futures and Options are available on 118 securities. Interest
rate future contracts are available on Notional 91 day t-bill and Notional 10 year bonds (6%
coupon bearing and zero coupon bond). While the index options are European style, stock
options arc American style.
At any point of time there are only three contract months available for trading, with 1
month, 2 months and 3 months to expiry. These contracts expire on last Thursday of the
month and have a maximum of 3-month expiration cycle. A new contract is introduced on the
next trading day following the expiry of the near month contract. All the derivatives contracts
are presently cash settled. The turnover in the derivatives segment has witnessed
considerable growth since inception.
In the global market, NSE ranks first (1st) in terms of number of contracts traded in
the Single Stock Futures, second (2nd) in Asia in terms of number of contracts traded in equity
derivatives instrument. Since inception, NSE established itself as the sole market leader in this
segment in the country with more than 99.5% market share.
Definition
Derivatives are specific types of instruments that derive their value over time from the performance of
an underlying asset: eg equities, bonds, commodities.
A derivative is traded between two parties – who are referred to as the counterparties. These
counterparties are subject to a pre-agreed set of terms and conditions that determine their rights and
obligations.
Derivatives can be traded on or off an exchange and are known as:
• Exchange-Traded Derivatives (ETDs): Standardised contracts traded on a recognised exchange, with
the counterparties being the holder and the exchange. The contract terms are non-negotiable and their
prices are publicly available.
or
• Over-the-Counter Derivatives (OTCs): Bespoke contracts traded off-exchange with specific terms
and conditions determined and agreed by the buyer andseller(counterparties). As a result OTC
derivatives are more illiquid, eg forward contracts and swaps.
