MUMBAI: Association of National Exchanges Members of India (ANMI), the largest association of stock brokers in India, has written to the markets regulator Sebi, urging it to allow NSE to re-launch weekly options contracts on Bank Nifty. In Oct 2024, concerned by the rising losses incurred by retail investors who traded in equity options, Sebi had asked exchanges to trade only one weekly contract on a benchmark index.Following the regulatory diktat, NSE discontinued Bank Nifty weekly options from Nov 2024, leading to a sharp drop in volumes and a subsequent drop in revenues for the bourse. As a result, the ANMI letter said, there have been loss of jobs at brokerages, while the govt is losing revenues due to a drop in securities transaction tax (STT), goods & services tax (GST), and so on.According to some estimates, during the first half of FY25, premiums from weekly options on Bank Nifty index constituted about 74% of the total premiums in Bank Nifty options. This led to shift or disappearance of trading volumes on NSE, that, in turn led to loss of jobs like dealers in broking houses.The letter said that although exact employment data was not publicly available, the sharp drop in volume implied contraction in support roles, like dealers, sales-persons, back-office people, linked to high-turnover weekly contracts. On the loss to the exchequer, ANMI said that the contraction in turnover implies a corresponding reduction in STT and GST on brokerage, etc. “With index-derivative premium turnover dropping by about 35-40% (after Nov 2024), govt revenue from ancillary services linked to this trading is adversely affected,” it said.
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