After the National Stock Exchange (NSE) said it would launch Brent crude oil contracts on March 1, the bourse on Thursday said Indian crude basket has significant potential in attracting hedgers and traders.
The NSE has signed a pact with global market information provider ICIS for using its Brent-Forties-Oseberg-Ekofisk data and will launch two cash-settled futures products 100 barrel brent crude oil futures and 10 barrels brent crude oil mini futures.
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Ravi Varanasi, chief business development officer said, "This is the first time we are able to provide that contract for Indian investors and hedgers, so we are seeing a significant potential. We have already started interacting with value chain from hedgers to other traders who are interested in crude oil and their prices. Possibly, the timing is very important at this point of time and should give us good volumes to build on and take this contract forward."
The trading session for both the futures will be between 9:00 AM and 11:30 PM from Monday to Friday. The initial margin on this contract would be a minimum of 4 per cent or based on SPAN margin system, whichever is higher.
As part of the daily compilation of the index, the NSE is licensing ICIS BFOE assessment data, which is produced five times a day. The ICIS BFOE assessment data complies with the standards and principles set by the International Organization of Securities Commissions.
Earlier, the NSE had launched futures contract in gold and silver in its commodity derivatives segment and also received markets regulator Sebi's approval to launch futures contracts in copper.
(With inputs from PTI)(Edited by : Jomy Jos Pullokaran)
First Published: Feb 28, 2019 6:59 PM IST