SGX Nifty, an early indicator of the Indian equity market, has moved from Singapore to India’s GIFT City (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City) in Gujarat. Consequently, it has been renamed as GIFT Nifty. All the derivatives contracts on SGX Nifty that were trading in Singapore Exchange, valued at around $7.5 billion, have been moved to NSE International Exchange (IX) in GIFT city last week.

While all other factors remain the same, GIFT Nifty will have more trading hours when compared to SGX Nifty. GIFT Nifty will be available for trade for 21 hours a day compared to SGX Nifty’s 16 hours. There will be two sessions – 6:30 a.m. to 3:40 p.m. and 4:35 p.m. to 2:45 a.m.

Under GIFT Nifty, there are four contracts being offered now – GIFTY Nifty 50, GIFT Nifty Bank, GIFT Nifty Financial Services and GIFT Nifty IT derivatives contracts.

The price and other data regarding the contracts can be checked at www.nseix.com web site.

There are considerable advantages for investors like exemptions from STT (Securities Transaction Tax), CTT (Commodities Transaction Tax), DDT (Dividend Distribution Tax) and waivers in capital gains.

While GIFT Nifty contracts can be accessed by non-residents, retail traders from India cannot trade in these contracts. Even under LRS (Liberalised Remittance Scheme), it is prohibited since these are leveraged trades. But a company from India, who set up a subsidiary in GIFT City, can get their hands on it.

For Indian retail traders, GIFT Nifty, like SGX Nifty, will continue to be a good indicator of how the India equity market will open.

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