SEBI assures of all steps to deepen commodity derivatives market; Education and awareness key to promote participation: S K Mohanty, Whole Time Member, SEBI

Mar 01, 2019

MUMBAI, 1 March 2019: Mr S.K. Mohanty, Whole Time Member, SEBI, has held out the assurance that SEBI will take all necessary steps for deepening of the commodity derivatives market. Of the 3Ps required to build any market � Policy, Product and Participants � the first two were already in place and the eco-system should ensure education and awareness to promote participation.

Speaking at the conference on 'Institutional Participation - Ushering a New Era in Commodity Derivatives Market' organised by FICCI jointly with MCX Investor Protection Fund here on Thursday, Mr. Mohanty said that the regulatory ecosystem in India�s commodity derivatives market was at par with other developed markets. Attributing this to the positive steps taken by SEBI over the last three years, Mr Mohanty said SEBI has done reasonably well on this front.

"Mutual fund participation will be a game changer in the commodity derivatives market and will open a gateway for the ETF segment," the regulator said. "With the participation of institutional investors such as mutual funds, there will be information-based trading as against random trading", he explained and shared his optimism about the positive role the institutional players can play in making the market more robust, liquid and inclusive.

Mr. Mrugank Paranjape, Chairman, FICCI National Committee on Commodities and MD & CEO, MCX, said, "Institutional participation has been a long pending need for the growth and development of the commodity derivatives market. The presence of financial institutions such as mutual funds can not only offer the common domestic investors an additional avenue for better financial investment but can also make this market more robust by providing liquidity especially to the far months' contracts. Enhanced liquidity and presence of diverse participation groups including hedgers and financial institutions would strengthen the price discovery mechanism and make risk management on exchange platforms more efficient and cost effective to the stakeholders by lowering the impact cost of trade."