Tuhin Kanta Pandey, the chairman of the markets watchdog Sebi, said on Thursday that the agency would provide directives on the expiration of equity derivatives contracts this month after an analysis of the feedback received on the consultation paper.

In its March consultation document, Sebi suggested that all stock futures contracts on all exchanges have their expiration dates universally restricted to either Tuesdays or Thursdays. By doing this, you might avoid choosing the first or final day of the week as the expiry day and maximize the time between expirations.

“Right now, whatever framework is there, we will be issuing a post-consultation paper and we will be analyzing the comments,” Pandey told reporters. The committees have convened, and this month we will provide an explanation.

He said, “Those days are fixed now,” when asked whether expiries might be moved to Tuesday or Thursday. Nothing has changed, yet things are changing even more.

In its consultation document, Sebi also suggested that before initiating or altering any contract expiration or settlement day, exchanges should get Sebi’s consent.

The regulator had suggested that “each exchange will continue to be allowed one weekly benchmark index options contract, on their chosen day (Tuesday or Thursday).”

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has postponed until further notice its intention to move the expiration date of all index and stock derivatives from Thursday to Monday in response to the consultation document. The change would have caused all index and stock derivatives contracts to transfer from Thursday to Monday, with the change set to take effect on April 4, 2025.

According to Pandey, Sebi has given in-principle clearance for electricity derivatives, a possible instrument to hedge against the volatility in the energy sector, in order to broaden the product landscape and serve the changing demands of the expanding economy.

The head of Sebi also said that the agency wants to eliminate unnecessary regulations and strives for optimal regulation. We are concentrating on the best possible regulation of the securities market environment. In order to maintain strong investor protection and high market integrity, we want to streamline legislation, eliminate superfluous clauses, and make compliance easier. We need the industry’s assistance as a reliable partner in order to accomplish these goals.