Options trading across India’s stock exchanges jumped more than 40% in October as market volatility returned, reversing the slowdown seen in the previous quarter.
Combined daily options premium turnover on NSE and BSE rose 43% from September to Rs 1,061 billion, while the number of contracts traded climbed 39% to 360 million a day. This marks a clear turnaround after volumes had fallen sharply in the July-September period. In that quarter, combined premium turnover had dropped more than 25% to Rs 70,300 crore from Rs 94,100 crore in the April-June quarter, while daily contracts had slipped nearly 20% to 257 million.
NSE’s daily options premium turnover rose 34% to Rs 68,700 crore in October. BSE grew even faster, with premium turnover climbing 61% to Rs 37,400 crore — its highest level on record. Average daily contracts on BSE jumped 68% to 183 million, outpacing NSE’s 17% rise to 177 million. The gap shows that while both exchanges benefited, the smaller exchange captured a larger share of the surge when volatility picked up. For the full July-September quarter, NSE premium turnover had fallen 26% and BSE’s had dropped 24%.
Cash market volumes, by contrast, stayed soft on both exchanges. This underlines that the October rebound was concentrated in derivatives rather than a broad rise in equity trading.
Commodity exchange MCX painted a more mixed picture. Its futures turnover fell 24% month-on-month to Rs 497 billion, with gold futures dropping 37% and silver futures easing 22%. Crude oil futures also declined 18%. Options premiums on MCX, however, held up better, easing only 5% to Rs 116 billion. Looking at the broader quarter, MCX futures turnover was actually up nearly 6% and options premiums rose more than 13% compared with the April-June period. The split highlights how equity options responded more strongly to the recent market swings than commodity futures.