Equity derivatives volumes on NSE fall, but traders say it’s too early to see a trend.
The first day of longer trading hours saw the turnover in the equity derivatives segment of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) fall nearly 50 per cent from the last trading day (Thursday). Market players, however, said this had nothing to do with the new timings and they would wait for a few more days for a trend to emerge.
The two main exchanges, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and NSE, today started trading at 9 am instead of 9.55 am.
However, market players said the decline was mainly due to lack of participation by foreign institutional investors.
“Large intuitions were absent from the markets today as it was the first trading day of the new year. The foreign players will take a few more days to decide their fund allocation strategy,” said Dinesh Thakkar, managing director of Mumbai-based Angel Broking.
The turnover on NSE today was over Rs 42,500 crore. Over the past one week, the exchange had been witnessing a lot of action and its average daily turnover in the derivatives was in the range of Rs 60,000-80,000 crore. On December 31, it crossed the Rs 100,000 crore-mark.
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“Extended trading hours had no major impact on trading today as participation from the retail segment was usual and everything went on smoothly,” said Deven Choksey, managing director of KR Choksey Shares and Securities.
Choksey said while everything went on smoothly today, one would have to wait and see if the clearing and settlement process went on smoothly too.
“To see a proper trend in volumes, one will have to wait for at least two-three weeks. The volumes are not likely to increase due to longer trading hours unless there is some major event,” said Bhanubhai Fozdar, chairman of the BSE Brokers Forum.
In the cash segment, however, the turnover went up. NSE recorded a turnover of Rs 14,975 crore while shares worth Rs 6,591 crore were traded on BSE. The combine turnover in the cash segment of BSE and NSE stood at Rs 21,566 crore. During the entire month of December 2008, the volumes in the cash segment were in the range of Rs 16,000 crore-23,000 crore.
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The exchanges had advanced timings despite strong protests by a majority of stock brokers. The brokers were of the view that apart from creating manpower problems, the move would create infrastructure issues related to clearing and settlement.