A ban on US-based high-frequency trader (HFT) Jane Street did little to dent activity in the derivatives segment, with July volumes rising 10 per cent month-on-month to an eight-month high. Analysts and experts said the jump may have come from proprietary and retail traders, spurred by a spike in market volatility.
Sebi aims to stay proactive as HFT and quant firms like Citadel Securities, Optiver, Millennium, and IMC Trading are expanding rapidly in India, which is home to the world's largest derivatives market by contracts traded.
'Sebi's measures are necessary to align the derivatives market with its underlying cash market, as the current disconnect is unsustainable.'
'The hearing is not adversarial but inquisitorial in nature -- it allows Sebi to examine the context, the strategy, and the intent behind the trades, particularly when algorithmic and expiry-day trading are involved.'
The Jane Street-Sebi saga is more than a legal dispute -- it's a litmus test for India's ambitions as a global financial hub.
Although most high-frequency traders (HFTs) prefer to set up shop close to stock exchanges to enjoy better latency, a few are willing to sacrifice proximity to save a few bucks. Two HFTs have already established their offices at the GIFT City (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City) IFSC while many more are likely to follow suit.
Banks reported muted treasury gains during April-June of FY25 (Q1FY25) following Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) revised norms on investment portfolio effective from April 1, 2024, despite softening of government bond yields. "Banks have reported muted treasury gains during Q1 of FY25 despite softening of yields across the curve. "The main reason was change in the investment valuation and classification guidelines by the RBI.
Banks are preferring instruments with higher premium over government securities for their held-till-maturity (HTM) portfolio, following the new investment norms, which came into effect from April 1. They are stocking up on corporate bonds and state government securities to boost yield on their portfolio, according to market participants. "Definitely, if there is a good spread available and without lower credit risk, those instruments will be favoured to boost the yield on the portfolio.
The government on Friday proposed hiking the securities transaction tax on Futures & Options (F&O) contracts, a move that will increase the trading costs in the derivatives segment as well as help in curbing excessive trades. In the Finance Bill 2023, passed by the Lok Sabha on Friday, the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on options is proposed to be increased to 0.0625 per cent from 0.05 per cent and on futures contracts to 0.0125 from 0.01 per cent. Analysts opined that higher STT will shore up the government's revenues to some extent and also discourage excessive trading since a large number of retail traders are losing money in the segment.
For the first time in 21 years, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will revise norms for investment portfolios of commercial banks to reflect changes in global standards on valuation and measurement, and progress in the domestic market. This could pave the way for banks to transition to the new accounting standards (Ind-AS). The outstanding investment portfolio of commercial banks was at Rs 45.84 trillion as of November 19 this year.
Many banks' profits will take a hit and a few of them could even end up being in the red because of treasury losses, triggered by a sudden spike in government bond yields in the rising interest rate cycle, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
A little over 80 per cent of the orders placed on domestic stock markets are generated by algorithms. Samie Modak reports on the whats and whys of algos.
An individual might not be able to put together the data and number-crunching resources that institutional traders employ.
Brokers will be required to reveal statistics such as trade-to-order ratio of the algo during a period as well as details of any changes made to the core programme.
Market regulator is trying to build a large team of software experts for efficient monitoring and surveillance
Worried over a spike in interest rates in the wake of steps to support the falling rupee, the RBI on Tuesday announced a slew of measures, including Rs 8,000 crore bond buyback, to ease liquidity and ensure adequate credit flow to the productive sectors of the economy.
Radhakishan Damani is the only billionaire to see his wealth grow by around 20% during the lockdown.
The BSE and the NSE have also been asked to provide inputs.
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