Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has extended the suspension of trading in derivative contracts for seven commodities, namely paddy (non-basmati), wheat, chana, mustard seeds and its derivatives, soyabean and its derivatives, crude palm oil and moong, for one year.
"The suspension of trading in the above contracts has been extended for one more year beyond December 20, 2022 i.e. till December 20, 2023," Sebi said in a release on Tuesday evening.
The Commodity Participants Association of India (CPAI) had urged the government and markets regulator Sebi to allow exchanges to resume trading in seven agricultural derivatives contracts, including crude palm oil and wheat, which were suspended for one year from December 2021.
In its letter to the Finance Ministry and Sebi on last Monday, the association said the prolonged bans are detrimental to the Indian commodity market ecosystem and severely dent the perception regarding India's ease of doing business environment.
The industry body had said easily reversible options, such as increasing margin and lowering open interest limits for commodity derivatives contracts may be resorted to in case significant volatility is observed in agri-commodity contracts.
In order to curb inflation, the regulator on December 2021 prohibited exchanges from launching new derivative contracts of soyabean, mustard seeds, channa, wheat, paddy, moong and crude palm oil. (ANI)
