Exchanges To Not Issue Any Fresh Weekly Index Futures Contracts After July 1 - Know Why

Stock market exchanges BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) will not issue any  fresh weekly index futures contracts from July 1, 2025 until further notice. This move has come as both the exchanges prepare to shift their expiry days for weekly and monthly equity derivatives contracts.

On Tuesday, June 17, both the exchanges received Sebi’s approval to reschedule their weekly and monthly futures contract expiry days. NSE’s expiry day will shift from Thursday to Tuesday, while BSE’s expiry day will move from Tuesday to Thursday. This change complies with Sebi’s directive that the two exchanges should not have derivative contract expiries on the same day.

The new expiry days will come into effect from September 1, 2025. For new or existing contracts, expiring on or before 31 August 2025, the expiry day will remain unchanged.

"The regulation was introduced to prevent excessive speculative trading and ensure orderly market conditions on expiry days," said Naman Shah, Senior Vice President & Head Sales, Ohm Dovetail. Sebi's regulatory changes, including the adjustment of expiry days, aim to create a more structured and stable environment for equity derivatives trading, he added.

Why No New Weekly Index Futures From July 1

Exchanges will not issue any new weekly index futures to avoid confusion or operational issues during the shift to the new expiry cycle.

This ensures that no contracts are caught mid-cycle during the expiry day changeover. This helps exchanges avoid the complexity of handling different expiry days for overlapping weekly contracts which could create market disruption or confusion for traders and clearing corporations.

BSE, in its exchange filing, stated that Sebi would soon issue a detailed circular clarifying operational details, including treatment of long-dated contracts and changes to margining or settlement mechanisms.

Why Can’t BSE And NSE Have Expiries On Same Day

The regulatory move came after Sebi’s March 27 consultation paper, which expressed the need to formalise and stagger expiry days across exchanges.

Sebi, in its consultation paper, had explained that spreading out expiry days across the week helps reduce concentration risk and allows exchanges to offer different products to traders.

At the same time, the regulator cautioned that too many expiry days can fragment liquidity and encourage excessive trading activity, which could harm investor protection and market stability. To avoid this, Sebi decided to fix and formalise expiry days for equity derivatives across exchanges. This is aimed at giving traders clarity and preventing exchanges from changing expiry days in ways that could disrupt the market or affect smooth trading.