NSE changes expiry of all F&O contracts from Thursday to Monday effective April 4

NSE changes expiry of all F&O contracts from Thursday to Monday effective April 4

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) on March 4 said all Nifty index weekly futures and options (F&O) contracts will expire on Monday instead of Thursday with effect from April 4.

All Nifty F&O contracts to expire last Monday of expiry month, not Thursday, said the exchange.

NSE also shifted F&O expiry for Bank Nifty, FinNifty, Nifty Midcap Select and Nifty Next50 to the last Monday of the expiry month with effective from April 4.

"The circular shall come into effect from April 04, 2025 i.e. Expiry day for all existing contracts will be revised to "New Expiry Day" on April 03, 2025 (EOD)," said NSE.

The monthly contracts of all stocks will also expire on last Monday of the expiry month, added NSE.

With April 14, 2025 being a stock market holiday, the revised expiry day is April 11, said the stock exchange.

Derivatives trading enables participants to speculate the prices of underlying assets without actually owning them in their portfolios.

Individual traders in the F&O market suffered a staggering Rs 1.8 lakh crore in aggregate losses over the past three fiscal years, with nearly 93% of more than 1 crore investors, or nine out of 10 traders, incurring average losses of Rs 2 lakh each, according to a Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) analysis in September 2024.

Notably, the top 3.5% of loss-makers -- about 4 lakh traders -- suffered an average loss of Rs 28 lakh each over the three years from FY22 to FY24, inclusive of transaction costs.

Only 1% of the individual traders managed to earn profits exceeding Rs 1 lakh, after adjusting for transaction costs.

This assumes significance as an earlier study published in January 2023 by the capital market watchdog showed that 89% of individual equity F&O traders lost money in FY22.