The turnover of interest rate futures on bourses nearly hit Rs 1.5 lakh crore in the first half 2014-15, even as trading value in September slipped by nearly 32 percent from the previous month level.
Trading of interest rate futures (IRF) on BSE, NSE and MCX-SX cumulatively stood at about Rs 1.48 lakh crore during April-September period.
In September, however, the total trading value on the three stock exchanges dipped by 31.8 per cent to Rs 19,516 crore over the preceding month.
Turnover of IRF cumulatively stood at Rs 28,644.62 crore in August, as per the data available with the bourses.
An IRF, generally a contract between a buyer and a seller agreeing to the future delivery of any interest-bearing asset such as government bonds, was launched on the three exchanges in January this year.
Individually, NSE accounted for the highest share (93.7 per cent) in turnover among the bourses, during the first six months of the current fiscal. The bourse recorded a turnover of Rs 1.38 lakh crore on its platform for IRF.
At the same time, the IRF value stood at about Rs 7,831 crore on BSE followed by Rs 1,413.16 crore on MCX-SX.
For September, NSE saw a IRF turnover at Rs 17,926.62 crore, down 33 per cent from the preceding month. However, the exchange is much above BSE and MCX-SX both in terms of trading value and volume in IRF.
Trading value on the BSE, last month, dropped by 9.65 per cent to Rs 1,568.41 crore.
Besides, trading in IRF on MCX-SX also saw a sharp dip at about Rs 21 crore in September from Rs 92.18 crore in August. Trading of IRFs on this exchange was above the Rs 100 crore level in the first four months of 2014-15 where in July it had recorded highest value for the fiscal at Rs 536 crore.
In terms of volume, the exchanges together traded 73.69 lakh contracts on their platforms during the first half of 2014-15, with as many as 9.78 lakh trades in the last month.
The number of trades recorded last month were 31.7 per cent lower than in August.
NSE registered trading of 69 lakh contracts, while BSE IRF volumes stood at 3.90 lakh, for April-September period.
Besides, as many as 70,473 IRF contracts have been traded on MCX-SX for period under review.
Last month, the IRF contracts traded on NSE stood at 8.98 lakh, BSE (78,484) and MCX-SX (1047).
The cash-settled IRFs provides market participants with a better option to hedge risks arising from fluctuations in interest rates, which depend on various factors including RBI policy, demand for liquidity and flow of overseas funds.
Banks, primary dealers, mutual funds, insurance firms, FIIs, corporates and brokers, as well as retail investors can trade in this product.
