SEBI ALLOWS CROSS MARGINING
Market regulator Sebi, or Securities Exchange Board of India, said positions in cash and futures would be considered for cross margining, reports CNBC-TV18. Cross margining would be allowed for all market participants to the extent of positions offsetting in cash and F&O. The basket of positions in index stocks and futures are also eligible for cross margining, it added.
The circular came after the market closed. These cross margining norms are already applicable for institutional investors and now they are allowed for non-institutional investors as well. Essentially market participants believe that this would help in the arbitrage volumes picking up which of late have dried up.
If you are going for a basket buy and you buy a set of Nifty stocks and you sell Nifty futures as a hedge, in that case also you will have cross-margin benefits so you dont have to pay margins on both sides. There is a third angle to it, if you already have a stock in your portfolio but your view on the stock is negative for the short term and you want to short sell that in the futures side you can do that and your stock, which is already there in the portfolio would be taken as a margin.
The one angle about arbitrage is for institutional investors: the volumes have been low of late not because of any margining but because of exchange rate fluctuations and you have to take cover for exchange rate as well and with the exchange rate now fluctuating so badly and thats the reason why the volumes have been hit but on the domestic side there could be a bit of a pick up.
COURTESY : MONEYCONTROl.