The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on October 15, 2024, issued a circular regarding the Monitoring of position limits for the equity derivative segment.
The para 1.3.2.3 and para 2.3.2.3 of Chapter 5 of the Master Circular on Stock Exchanges and Clearing Corporations (SECC), dated October 16, 2023, specifies the overall position limit at the Trading member (TM) level (proprietary + client) to be higher of INR 500 crores or 15% of the total Open Interest (OI) in market. This position limit is separately applicable for all open positions on futures and options contracts, in a particular underlying index.
Based on the feedback received from market participants, the deliberations held in the Secondary Market Advisory Committee (SMAC) and further internal discussions, the following has been decided:
• The position limits for TMs, cumulatively for client and proprietary trades, in index Futures and Options contracts may be set at a higher of INR 7,500 crore or 15% of the total OI in the market.
• As per the extant practice, the position limits will be applicable for index futures and index options separately.
It is also noted that the open interest of both the participants and the market is dynamic and changing throughout the day. To provide better clarity to the market participants in terms of their position limits, the following has been decided:
• In conformity with the extant practice in the currency derivatives segment, positions of market participants in the equity derivatives segment (index and stocks) shall also be monitored based on the total open interest of the market at the end of the previous day’s trade.
• In case of a drop in market OI compared to the previous day’s market OI, market participants may breach the specified position limits even if their positions have remained unchanged throughout the day.
• For such cases of passive breaches, market participants would not be penalised and not be required to unwind their positions.
[Circular No. SEBI/HO/MRD/MRD-PoD-2/P/CIR/2024/140]
