Sebi finalises stringent norms for options trading eligibility
Mumbai—The Securities and Exchange Board of India, Sebi, has laid down stringent norms for individual scrips to be eligible for options trading. The norms laid down by Sebi make only 30-35 scrips eligible for trading of options.

Sebi has, given the task of selecting the scrips to the stock exchanges, but says that the selected scrip will require the prior approval of Sebi.

Apart from this the regulator has decided to restrict the total open interest in options on a stock to not more than 20 times the average of daily shares traded of a particular scrip, during the previous month in the underlying cash market and has decided to have a cash settlement of options contracts for the first six months after which the stock exchanges could move over to a physical settlement.

The selection norms laid down for scrips specify that the scrip should figure among the top 200 scrips on the basis of average market capitalisation during the previous six months.
The average market capitalisation of the free float or the non-promoter holding of the company’s stock should not be less than Rs 750 crore.

The stock should also appear on the top 200 scrips list in terms of average daily volume during the previous six months.
The average daily volume of the scrip in the underlying cash market should not be less than Rs 5 crore.

In addition to this, the stock should have traded on at least 90 per cent of the trading days during the previous six months.
The non-promoter holding in the scrip should be at least 30 per cent, which is more than the 10 per cent, which Sebi currently allows companies to keep.

The group has also said that the ratio of daily volatility of the stock vis-a-vis the daily volatility of the index should not be more than 4 at any time during the previous six months.
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FIs determine range of Rs 57-62 for RPL scrips
Mumbai— Under Reliance Petroleum’s proposed offering of GDRs Indian FIs have indicated a price range of Rs 57 to Rs 62 a share on their equity holdings in the company while the response from the large army of small investors is still awaited. The current market price of the scrip is around Rs 52.

Earlier this month, RPL made an offer to domestic shareholders whereby they could submit their shares, which would then be offered to international investors as part of a GDR issue.
Under the proposal, investors could either indicate a price at which they would participate in the GDR offer or commit themselves to the issue and sell shares at the cut-off price in the book-building process.
RPL plans to list its shares in the international bourses with a GDR issue comprising an offer for sale of existing shares currently held by investors in India.
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