GIFT Nifty: Retail firms to directly invest in listed depositories of global companies, says NSE's Ashishkumar Chauhan

Retail companies will be able to directly invest in listed depositories of global companies like Microsoft, etc.

The Singapore Stock Exchange Nifty or SGX Nifty will be rebranded as the GIFT Nifty as it shifts to the NSE International Exchange (NSE IX) in the GIFT City and all derivative contracts, valued at about $7.5 billion, that traded in Singapore will relocate to India.

In an interview with CNBC TV18, NSE MD & CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan spoke about GIFT Nifty and how it is a major development for the Indian markets.

SGX has many local brokers and it also allows direct market access, said Chauhan.

"NSE IX has its own 60 members and their customers and we already have 40 more members in the pipeline so by this year's end we should have around 100 local members at the NSE IX," Chauhan added.

When asked whether Indian retail Investors will be allowed to trade or not, Chauhan said that this is a dollar market, a home away from home.

"We have capital account convertibility, Indians can take out money for investments only through liberalised remittance scheme and that's where there are restrictions on investing or trading in speculative products like derivatives.

Retail companies will be able to directly invest in listed depositories of global companies like Microsoft, etc.

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NSE IX MD & CEO V Balasubramaniam also spoke about the GIFT Nifty and the changing landscape of Indian markets.

When asked whether there's a possibility of individual stock futures also trading in this particular platform and if there are any more parallel products coming up, Balasubramaniam said, "We are clearly looking at some DRs on Indian stocks, we have a very vibrant debt listing market."

Speaking on the average daily volume that he expects on GIFT Nifty, he said, "Today, the Indian market has an open interest of $2-2.5 billion. Yesterday with the switch happening between the Futures and Options, we have 9.3 billion dollars of open interest out of which 8.1 billion dollars is the Futures and almost 1.1 (billion dollars) is the Options."

He also said that additionally since the new set of players from the Indian zone who are in the IFSC will also join, the liquidity might start growing.

Trading in contracts for GIFT Nifty 50, GIFT Nifty Bank, GIFT Nifty Financial Services, and GIFT Nifty IT will be open from July 3.