The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has allowed commodity exchanges to introduce trading in options. The regulator on Wednesday said in a circular sent to exchanges that would require its approval, which will be subject to guidelines that would be announced later.
Sebi has refrained from introducing index-based futures as of now. Leading commodity exchanges have their indices, but Sebi wants to finalise a standard methodology. “Traders need to hedge against price change in a particular commodity and not the overall market and, hence, index futures are not given a priority,” explained a person connected with the development.