The fight between the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Singapore bourse SGX has just taken a new turn.
The NSE has filed a case in the Bombay High Court seeking interim relief on the Nifty-based products that SGX said it will start trading from June. SGX revealed NSE’s legal move in a statement it issued on Tuesday.
In February, NSE chose to withdraw itself from a decade-old agreement it had with SGX allowing the trading of Nifty index futures in Singapore. Two months later, on April 11, SGX announced a new product that works just like the Nifty index, bypassing Indian exchanges.
SGX’s new products are called India futures and India options, and the exchange will use the closing Nifty price to settle new contracts.
An NSE spokesperson declined to comment on the issue or share details of the petition.
“We have full confidence in our legal position and will vigorously defend this action. Our clients can continue to trade per normal,” SGX said in its statement.
“NSE’s petition cites infringement of Intellectual Property (IP) rights and the assumption is that SGX’s products are primarily infringing on copyrighted work,” a legal expert close to the development told BusinessLine .
In its defence, SGX has reportedly stated that India-related products were essential to enable FIs to maintain their current portfolio risk exposure to the Indian capital markets. SGX said that it had expressed to the NSE the need to maintain liquidity in the international India equity derivatives market, to connect international participants to the GIFT IFSC.
Indian stock exchanges had earlier decided to stop giving data to bourses in Singapore and Dubai. Foreign traders, worried over India’s compliance norms and tax hassles, used the SGX and DGCX to trade and generated huge volumes.
Concerns rose in India as SGX began futures trading in 50 of the most liquid Indian stocks. DGCX, too, trades these stocks. SGX and DGCX traders face far lower statutory costs, taxes and compliance requirements.