Sebi allows to extend trading time for equity derivatives till 11.55 pm

Markets regulator Sebi today allowed exchanges to extend the trading time for equity derivatives till 11.55 pm from October 1.

The move is part of Sebi's efforts to enable integration of stocks and commodities trading on a single exchange.

"It has been decided to permit stock exchanges to set their trading hours in the equity derivatives segment between 9:00 am and 11:55 pm," Sebi said in a circular.

This is similar to the trading hours for commodity derivatives segment which is presently fixed between 10 am and 11:55 pm.

The permission is subject to stock exchanges and clearing corporations have in place risk management system and infrastructure commensurate to the trading hours.

In case, stock exchanges plan to extend the trade timings beyond the extant trading hours, they would require prior approval from Sebi, according to the circular.

The bourses would also be required to submit a detailed proposal, including the framework for risk management, settlement process, monitoring of positions, availability of manpower, system capability and surveillance systems.

This will come into effect from October 1, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said.

In December, the Sebi board had announced the much-awaited integration of stocks and commodities trading on a single exchange from October this year.

Currently, commodity derivatives are traded on separate exchanges, which include MCX and NCDEX.

Sebi has already been regulating the commodities derivative market after the merger of erstwhile Forward Markets Commission (FMC) with it.

In his budget for 2017-18, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed that the commodities and securities derivative markets would be integrated further by integrating the participants, brokers and operational frameworks.