NSE pauses plan to move F&O expiry to Monday until further notice after SEBI's consultation paper

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has put its plan to shift futures and options (F&O) expiry to Monday on hold following market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India's (SEBI's) consultation paper. This was going to be effective from April 4 but has now been deferred until further notice.

"Members are required to note that the implementation of this circular is deferred until further notice in view of the SEBI consultation paper dated March 27, 2025 on 'Final Settlement Day (Expiry Day) for Equity Derivatives'," the NSE said in a circular, referring to its notice that announced shifting expiry to Monday from Thursday.

The NSE was planning to revise the expiry date of NIFTY, Bank NIFTY, FINNIFTY, MIDCPNIFTY, NIFTYNXT50, and all monthly contracts.

In its consultation paper, SEBI proposed uniformly limiting the expiry of all equity derivatives contracts on an exchange to Tuesdays or Thursdays. The regulator believed this would offer optimal spacing between expiries across exchanges.

"Besides benchmark index options, all other equity derivatives contracts, viz., all benchmark index futures, non-benchmark index futures/options, and all single stock futures/ options will be offered with a minimum tenor of 1 month, and the expiry will be in the last week of every month on their chosen day (that is last Tuesday or last Thursday of the month)," SEBI added.

The exchanges will now need advance approval from SEBI for launching or modifying any contract expiry or settlement day.

The market regulator said that the objective of its consultation paper on expiry day is "to provide predictability and stability to market participants around expiry days of equity derivatives contracts across exchanges."

SEBI also wants to ensure ideal spacing of expiry days while optimising the number of such days to "reduce concentration risk, provide room for product innovation and risk management, while ensuring investor protection and market stability".

Meanwhile, BSE's equity derivatives expire on Tuesday. If NSE's expiry had shifted to Monday, it would have affected BSE's volumes.