One of Asia’s biggest trades took place on Monday, albeit without real money changing hands. Equity derivative contracts worth about $7.5bn in open interest, a measure of investment exposure, shifted from Singapore to India. It is a milestone in India’s campaign to compete with Singapore and Dubai as a key hub for Asian finance.
The SGX Nifty, a popular futures series on India’s key equity index, has been renamed Gift Nifty. The new name promotes Gift City, the financial hub the government hopes to develop in Gujarat, home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Mumbai-based National Stock Exchange has set up a derivatives offshoot there.
The timing could not be better. Investors had feared the move would reduce liquidity. But India’s key indices, the Nifty 50 and Sensex, continued a record-breaking run to fresh all-time highs on Monday.