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MUMBAI: National Stock Exchange (NSE) plans to roll out a market-making scheme for its recently launched Brent crude futures, as it seeks to build liquidity in a segment dominated by Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX).
“There is a plan to offer a liquidity enhancement scheme (LeS) for Dated Brent Crude Oil (Platts) futures in the next two-three weeks,” said a person aware of the development. “The exchange is in talks to appoint select broking firms for the LeS.”
The move reflects NSE’s broader strategy in commodity derivatives segment: introduce differentiated products and use market-making incentives to build volumes from scratch.
Sriram Krishnan, chief business development officer of NSE, declined to comment specifically on the LeS.
But, underscoring NSE's strategy to gain traction in the commodity derivatives segment, dominated currently by the Multi Commodity Exchange with over 99% share, Krishnan said, "We are trying to introduce unique and differentiated products from what is available in the market."
NSE launched Brent futures on 13 April.
“An LeS in dated Brent futures is a good move as this is one of the major traded commodities not just globally, but also in India,” said Naveen Mathur, director, commodities and currencies, at Anand Rathi. “It will offer participants a direct access to hedge once it becomes liquid.”
Market making involves an exchange incentivising select broking firms to provide two-way quotes, ensuring buyers and sellers can transact seamlessly at low impact cost and helping a new contract attract participation. Such schemes can run for up to three years or until sufficient liquidity is achieved, according to Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) rules.
In commodity derivatives, unlike equities, an exchange cannot offer market making in a product that is already liquid on a rival bourse unless the latter offers market making on the same.
MCX currently offers West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, which takes price cues from the contract traded on the US-based New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex).
Energy and bullion are among the most liquid segments on MCX, which recorded a notional turnover of ₹149.21 trillion in commodity futures in fiscal 2025-26 through February, as per Sebi data. Options premium turnover stood at ₹13.99 trillion during the same period. Notional turnover reflects the total contract value, while premium turnover represents the actual traded value.
MCX launched its commodity derivatives platform in November 2003, while NSE began offering commodity derivatives trading only in October 2018.
Reflecting this gap, NSE posted a turnover of ₹11,234 crore in FY26 (April-February) and premium turnover of ₹8,554 crore. BSE’s turnover was near zero, per the data. Sebi data for the full fiscal is yet to be updated.
Based on this, MCX’s share in non-farm futures stands at 99.9% and in options at 99.4%, with NSE accounting for the rest.
The fourth bourse offering a commodity derivatives platform, National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX), is predominantly focused on farm derivatives, making its numbers not directly comparable with non-farm platforms.
In equities derivatives, however, NSE had a 99.8% market share in futures and 74.7% in options as of March-end, with BSE accounting for the rest.
Ram Sahgal is a deputy editor at Mint. He has over 20 years of experience in journalism, with previous roles at The Intelligent Investor, Bombay Times, The Economic Times, and The New Indian Express. Between his media roles, he briefly worked at a commodities exchange before returning to his true passion, business journalism. Ram graduated in liberal arts from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, where he studied films, which explains his move to Bombay Times, where he covered the film industry during the rise of Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dutt. He took a leap of faith to transfer to The Economic Times, and thanks to his restless mind, later moved to cover the commodities beat. Over the past three years, Ram has been tracking the stock markets at Mint. His focus areas include writing about market infrastructure institutions, brokerages, derivatives, and related regulations. His hobbies include spotting trains and understanding the locomotives that power them. In his free time, he takes his octogenarian mother out for drives and goes to the cinema with her on weekends. If he has a dream, it is to write a screenplay for a movie. For now, he enjoys viewing market data on NSE and BSE, observing the shifting mood of Mr Market, and conversing with market experts.