National Stock Exchange of India, the country’s largest stock exchange operator, has received a no-objection certificate from the markets regulator to launch futures contracts linked to a corporate bond index, the exchange said on Thursday.
The launch is subject to approval from the Reserve Bank of India.
The proposed contracts would provide investors with an exchange-traded instrument to hedge and create arbitrage opportunities in a market that has grown in recent years but still lacks robust liquidity and risk-management tools.
Policymakers have repeatedly emphasised that India needs to deepen its corporate bond market to mobilise long-term capital as the economy expands.
The proposed contracts could strengthen the underlying corporate bond market by enabling more efficient risk transfer and support greater institutional participation, Sriram Krishnan, NSE chief business development officer, said in a statement.
NSE did not give details on the underlying corporate bond indices.
“Primary issuance has grown, particularly among highly rated issuers. The next stage must involve greater secondary-market liquidity and more continuous differentiation and pricing of credit risk,” Rohit Jain, RBI deputy governor, said in a July speech.
As of August 2026, total outstanding corporate bonds stood at 61.05 trillion rupees ($636.07 billion), according to a recent Securities and Exchange Board of India bulletin.
The launch would also open a fresh revenue line for the NSE, which recently went public with a $2.3 billion IPO that valued the exchange at about $47 billion.
($1 = 95.9800 Indian rupees)
Reuters
