SEBI allows stock exchanges to launch future contracts on corporate bond indices

The index should composed of corporate debt securities, constituents of the index should have adequate liquidity and diversification at issuer level and the constituents of the index should be periodically reviewed, Sebi said in a circular. 
      
Further, single issuer should not have more than 15 per cent weight in the index, there should be at least 8 issuers in the index, and the index should not have more than 25 per cent weight in a particular group of issuers (excluding securities issued by public sector undertakings, public financial institutions and public sector banks). 
      
\”The value of the Cash Settled Corporate Bond Index Futures (CBIF) contracts shall not be less than Rs 2 lakh at the time of introduction,\” Sebi said. 
      
The stock exchanges may introduce contracts of up to a tenure of three years.
      
For every CBIF, stock exchanges will set an initial price band at 5 per cent of the previous closing price or base price thus preventing acceptance of orders for execution that are placed beyond the set band. 
      
The trading hours should be between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM on all working days from Monday to Friday.