NSE to launch futures trade on Dow Jones, S&P 500 Monday

From Monday, Indian investors will be able to directly trade in derivatives contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500, two of the leading US indices, in rupees without bothering about foreign currency through the National Stock Exchange.

India's biggest stock exchange by turnover will conduct a mock trading session for these contracts on Saturday, and go live from Monday.

The move comes more than seven months after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) released a regulatory framework for the launch of derivatives contracts based on overseas indices.
 
The new contracts will include futures on Dow Jones as well as S&P 500, and options on the latter, NSE said.

"Derivative contracts on these global indices will provide Indian investors easy access to the US markets in Indian market hours, without taking any currency risk," Ravi Narain, NSE's managing director and chief executive, said.

The Dow Jones index constitutes stocks of 30 of the largest listed US companies, while the S&P 500 tracks 500 leading US stocks listed on the NYSE and Nasdaq. Globally, these two indices are among the most tracked stock market benchmarks.

While this is the first time that derivative contracts are being launched on global indices in India, it will also be the first instance of S&P500 futures being listed on an exchange outside the US.