India's Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) launched the country's first crude oil futures contracts last week (see FO Week Vol 10 No 5).
However, market participants questioned the logic behind the contracts' mirroring of their US equivalents. Sunny Arora, co-founder of Mumbai-based proprietary trading and broking firm Jaypee Capital, told FO Week that the contract gives Indian companies the ability to hedge themselves, but pointed out that the hedge would not be perfect as India uses different grades of oil to the US standard.
Kushal Thaker, a hedge fund manager...