Local firms have been backing away from the Bombay Stock Exchange’s struggling derivatives sector after volumes collapsed in 2008, with nearly 10% of the bourse’s derivatives members withdrawing their presence in the final quarter.
Although the BSE’s own figures indicate the exchange’s total membership remained stable at just below 1,000 throughout 2008 and the exchange did not comment on members’ sectoral activity, at the end of the year local press reported 23 brokers exiting the derivatives segment in the fourth quarter out of a total of just over 300 firms previously present in the sector.
One Mumbai-based broker contacted by Futures and...