By Sethuraman NR and Jayshree P Upadhyay
BENGALURU (Reuters) – Trading volumes on GIFT Nifty, a dollar-denominated derivatives contract of the Nifty 50 index previously called SGX Nifty, reached around $1.2 billion in the first half of its India debut on Monday, NSE CEO and managing director Ashishkumar Chauhan said.
The SGX Nifty, which was previously traded on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) platform, is now traded on the NSE’s International Exchange (NSE IX), which was established at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City or GIFT City, a tax-neutral international financial centre in western India.
Investors who were paying attention to the movement of the NSE’s blue-chip Nifty 50 index before the SGX Nifty opened can now do so with GIFT Nifty.
The derivative will be traded in two sessions, with the first half running from 6:30 am IST to 3:40 pm and the second half from 4:35 pm to 2:45 am IST, the NSE said.
About $9.4 billion of SGX Nifty’s open interest was absorbed by GIFT Nifty when transferred to India, Chauhan said at an event to mark the launch of the contract.
“As GIFT Nifty trades for 21 hours, overlapping with key trading hours in Europe, Asia and the US, retail investors can now easily hedge their positions,” said Shrey Jain, founder of discount broker SAS Online.
Initially, market participants will be able to access GIFT Nifty 50, GIFT Nifty Bank, GIFT Nifty Financial Services and GIFT Nifty IT, while other indices will be introduced in a phased manner, the NSE said earlier.
The blue-chip indices Nifty 50 and Sensex ended the session on Monday at new highs for the third consecutive day. (.BO)
(Reporting by Sethuraman NR in Bengaluru and Jayshree P Upadhyay in Mumbai; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Dhanya Ann Thoppil)
