India’s only agri derivatives exchange National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) is evaluating technical proposals from reputed global vendors—including its existing vendor LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group), US-based Nasdaq, London-headquartered Aquis and India’s largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS)—for its equity and equity derivatives platform slated for launch in the next fiscal year, according to a person aware of the development.
All the shortlisted vendors whose proposals are being evaluated have a track record in providing systems to stock exchanges, the person added. TCS, for instance, provides the exchange trading platform for commodity derivatives bourse MCX.
Asked to confirm the development, Arun Raste, managing director and chief executive officer of NCDEX, declined to comment, saying the matter was “confidential”.
Queries to Nasdaq, Aquis, LSEG and TCS remained unanswered until press time.
Raste, however, said that after NCDEX got Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi’s) nod for the equity cash and derivatives platform in September, it is looking to launch the equity segment by December 2026, followed by the equity derivatives segment in March 2027.
“Post the launch of the mutual fund transaction platform by April next year, we are targeting the equity cash and equity derivatives segments for launch in FY27,” he said.
To finance the launch of the platforms and interconnected services, NCDEX had raised approximately ₹770 crore through a preferential issuance to 61 investors, including marquee institutions like Kotak Life Insurance, JM Financial, high net worth individuals (HNIs) such as Madhu Kela and Ramesh Damani, stock brokers including Share India and Globe and foreign high frequency traders such as Optivar and Citadel in September this year.
The 40% preferential issuance reduced the shareholding of existing investors—including the National Stock Exchange (NSE), which held 15%, Life Insurance Corp. (LIC) and Nabard, with 11.1% each—to less than 10% each, Raste said.
Apart from NCDEX, other Indian exchanges that offer a commodity derivatives segment include the MCX, NSE and BSE.
India’s commodity derivatives turnover was at ₹568 trillion in FY25, with MCX accounting for 99.5% market share, Sebi data showed.
Interest in an equity derivatives platform was sparked after Sebi, in October last year, limited weekly equity index options expiries to one per exchange, down from multiple expiries earlier. However, effective September this year, it allowed exchanges to choose one of two days—Tuesday or Thursday—to run their index options expiry.
NSE has opted for a Tuesday expiry, while BSE shifted to Thursday from Tuesday since September this year. This makes competition for a new entrant a tough proposition as they will have to compete with existing players for market share in equity index options, said a broker who asked not to be named.
The broker added that launching an equity cash segment prior to a derivatives segment would, at best, attract new companies to list on the new platform, rather than existing players listing on it.
“NSE-backed NCDEX has raised funds for launching new equity cash and derivatives segments, in the hope that some of the IPO-bound companies might list on their new platform. It’s like an annuity business with listing fees for companies that vary from ₹3 lakh to ₹4 lakh each a year,” said the broker.
NCDEX had launched operations in 2003, with commodity derivatives trading being reintroduced by the Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government after a four-decade ban. The bourse sees robust delivery of spices and guar complex and is planning relaunch of pepper and potato derivatives contracts.
In 2007, trading in pulses and rice futures was banned by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government following excessive price rise due to supply-related constraints.
The bourse suffered a consolidated operating loss of ₹74.95 crore in FY25. However, thanks to stake sales in subsidiaries, it was able to post a net profit of ₹236 crore for the fiscal year as against a net loss of ₹27.7 crore in FY24, per its annual report.
