NSE emerges top derivatives exchange by number of contracts traded

National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) has become the world's largest derivatives exchange by number of contracts traded. 

NSE surpassed the Chicago-based CME Group to emerge as the largest derivatives exchange in 2019, according to statistics published by the Futures Industry Association (FIA), a derivatives trade body. 

In the cash equities segment, NSE placed third by number of trades, according to statistics published by the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE).

The Managing Director & CEO of NSE, Vikram Limaye, said it was a matter of pride for India that the NSE had emerged the largest derivatives exchange in the world and the third largest exchange in cash equities. 

Limaye said, “We are grateful to the government, regulators and all our stakeholders for the support extended to us over the years. Our achievements have been made possible by a supportive government and regulatory policies, state-of-the-art technology infrastructure, a robust risk management framework and the broad-based trust and participation of the entire spectrum of global and domestic investors.”

He said market development is critical to finance growth and to achieve India's aspiration of becoming a $5-trillion economy by 2024-25. 

“Robust capital markets are not only critical for financing the country's growth potential, but also for creating employment opportunities for our youth,” he added.

Over the last five years, NSE has developed robust markets for all asset classes. The cash equities segment has grown by more than 90 per cent, from a daily average turnover of about Rs 17,572 crore in CY 2015, to about Rs 34,264 crores in CY 2019.

During the same period, the daily average turnover in equity derivatives grew by 70 per cent from around Rs 52,371 crore in CY15 to Rs 88,772 crore in CY19.

NSE also witnessed about 60 per cent delivery percentage of trades executed in the cash market. The derivatives-to-cash market turnover ratio was consistent at around three times.

In the last five years, NSE recorded more than 1.2 crore new investor registrations in the cash equities segment, close to 87 lakh registrations of which were made in the past three years. A third of the new investors were from tier-3 and tier-4 cities and towns.

With digitisation gaining ground in India, the adoption of digital tools by investors stood at 26 per cent of the total trading activity in the cash equities segment, made via mobile and Internet trading.