The National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) remained the world’s largest derivatives exchange for the second consecutive year in 2020 in terms of number of contracts traded, according to the Futures Industry Association (FIA). In addition, the bourse has been ranked fourth in the world in cash equities by number of trades by the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) for calendar year 2020, NSE said in a statement on Thursday. The exchange said it has been focused on building robust markets for all asset classes and had launched a host of new products and services last year. In the capital market segment, NSE has listed T-bills (Treasury Bills) and SDLs (State Development Loans) facilitating investors to transact in these securities, in addition to the existing dated Government Securities (G-sec) available for trading.
When it comes to the debt segment, the bourse launched the Request for Quote Platform for execution and settlement of trades in debt securities. On the derivatives side, NSE launched weekly futures and options contracts on the EUR-INR, GBP-INR and JPY-INR pair. In the commodity derivatives segment, the bourse launched its first commodity options contract on gold, followed by silver. The exchange also made its foray into agricultural commodities with a futures contract on Crude Degummed Soybean Oil. “It is indeed a matter of great pride for us and for our country that NSE has emerged as a global leader and achieved the distinction of being the largest derivatives exchange in the world for the 2nd consecutive year and the 4th largest exchange in cash equities by number of trades,” Vikram Limaye, MD & CEO of NSE said.
The number of new investor registrations witnessed substantial growth in 2020, with 70 lakh new registrations, the highest in a calendar year and 2.3 times the number of registrations in 2019. NSE’s capital market segment average daily turnover witnessed a growth of 57 per cent last year. Also, the volumes transacted through mobile and internet-based platforms surged, accounting for 35 per cent of cash market turnover. Despite operational challenges as a result of COVID, high volatility and volumes, NSE said it has provided a stable, robust and resilient market infrastructure from a trading, risk management, regulatory and technology standpoint.
