Current certainty is that weekly F&O is on, says SEBI chief Tuhin Kanta Pandey

He added that right now weekly expiry was on and was working and clarified that if and when SEBI decides to review the system, it would do so through a formal consultation process.

SEBI chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey dismissed speculation about a possible ban on weekly options expiry, saying the regulator has not taken any such decision for now. He was speaking on November 7 at CNBC-TV18's Global Leadership summit.  He added that right now weekly expiry was on and was working and clarified that if  and when SEBI decides to review the system, it would do so through a formal consultation process.

This comes a day after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's statement on November 6 that the government is "not here to shut the door on futures and options trading".  She made these comments at an event in Mumbai adding that the Government was there to remove the roadblocks and work on them and that it was investors' responsibility to understand the associated risks, added Sitharaman. Previous news reports had hinted towards government wanting to deepen cash market volume and reduce speculation through a ban on weekly expiries.

On November 1 also Pandey had said that cannot shut down weekly expiry suddenly.

Brokers and other market participants had previously made representation to SEBI on not to ban the weekly expiries instead look for other measures like product suitability framework to safeguard retail investors from losses.

Sebi had formed a working group to deal with excessive F&O trades last year, in the note to expert working group said, “Considering growth of derivatives segment over the years combined with increased participation by individual investors in this segment and the poor profitability outcome for them, there is a need to stipulate certain objective criteria for allowing access to this segment”. Sebi’s recent study on F&O trading suggests that 91 percent of traders incurred losses in FY25 in F&O. The study indicates that the net losses of individual traders widened by 41 percent to Rs 1,05,603 crore in FY25 from Rs 74,812 crore in FY24, after accounting for transaction costs.