Sebi approves NSE's expiry day change to Tuesday, BSE to Thursday

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) approved the National Stock Exchange's (NSE) proposal to change its weekly expiry day from Thursday to Tuesday. Meanwhile, the regulator has shifted the expiry day for the BSE Sensex to Thursday from the current Tuesday. This change ensures that both exchanges do not have expiries on the same day. The BSE's new expiry day will take effect on September 1, 2025. Additionally, the exchange will not introduce any new weekly contracts for index futures starting July 1, 2025.

For existing contracts, BSE will maintain the current expiry day for derivatives, except for long-dated index options contracts, which will be adjusted as per previous practices. For new contracts, the existing expiry day for derivatives that expire on or before August 31, 2025, will continue.

This decision follows a circular issued by the capital markets regulator in the last week of May, instructing exchanges to choose either Tuesday or Thursday as their expiry day for equity derivatives. This directive aims to reduce expiry-day volatility and create uniformity across exchanges.

Prior to the May circular, exchanges were free to set their expiry days for derivatives products, resulting in a variety of expiry days throughout the week. Following consultations and feedback from a discussion paper released in March 2025, Sebi's Secondary Market Advisory Committee (SMAC) recommended limiting expiry options to decrease market hyperactivity.

According to the circular, each exchange can offer one weekly benchmark index options contract on their selected day. For all other derivatives, such as benchmark index futures, non-benchmark index options, and single stock contracts, the minimum contract tenor will now be one month, with expiry occurring on the last Tuesday or last Thursday of the month, depending on the exchange's selection.

In its circular dated March 4, 2025, the NSE planned to move the expiry days for its futures and options (F&O) for Nifty, Bank Nifty, FinNifty, Nifty Next50, and Nifty Midcap Select from Thursday to Monday. However, following this announcement, the NSE deferred the implementation of the F&O expiry change to Monday that was scheduled to take effect on Tuesday, April 4.​