Archive · 28 Nov 2025
Sebi Turns Attention to Commodity Derivatives After Equity Crackdown
The stock market regulator in India, Sebi, is looking into the commodity derivatives market after finding out that many people lost a lot of money trading equity derivatives.
They have asked brokers to share the profit and loss statements of their clients who trade in commodities like gold, silver, crude oil, and natural gas.
This is similar to what they did with equity derivatives, where they found that over 90% of individual traders lost a lot of money.
However, the commodity derivatives market is much smaller than the equity market.
The largest commodity exchange in India is MCX, which has over 90% of the market share.
Sebi is trying to understand if similar strict rules might be needed for commodity derivatives to protect investors.
Sebi is investigating the commodity derivatives segment (CDS) after a crackdown on equity derivatives revealed significant retail losses.
Brokers have been asked to submit profit and loss statements of clients trading in gold, silver, crude oil, and natural gas futures and options for the past three and a half years.
The total options premium turnover of MCX, India's largest commodity derivatives bourse, stood at ₹5.38 trillion during April-September 2025, which is less than a tenth of NSE's ₹55 trillion premium turnover in equity index options alone over the same period.
The number of unique client codes (UCCs) in CDS is 1.3 million, which is just 1% of the 120 million-plus in equities.
Sebi's regulatory demand for commodity derivatives P&L data follows two studies on equity derivatives that revealed significant individual investor losses.
- Who
- Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)
- What
- Regulatory scrutiny of commodity derivatives segment (CDS)
- When
- Data collection from fiscal year 2023 (FY23) through October 2026
- Where
- India
- Why
- To assess retail losses and potential regulatory measures
- Regulator
- Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)
- Commodities Under Scrutiny
- Gold, Silver, Crude Oil, Natural Gas
- Time Period for Data
- Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) through October 2026
- Market Share of MCX
- Over 90%
- Total Options Premium Turnover of MCX (April-September 2025)
- ₹5.38 trillion
- NSE's Equity Index Options Premium Turnover (April-September 2025)
- ₹55 trillion
- Unique Client Codes (UCCs) in CDS
- 1.3 million
- Unique Client Codes (UCCs) in Equities
- 120 million-plus