National Stock Exchange (NSE), the biggest stock exchange of the country, has slashed the lot sizes for derivative (futures and options) contracts of 143 stocks in order to induce more retail participation in the segment. NSE has come out with the new lot sizes in the wake of huge spurt in the prices of many stocks in the last few weeks. By reducing the lot-size, more volumes can be expected in the futures and options (F&O) segment as it will considerably reduce the cost of trading in securities.
Earlier in February this year, the NSE had hiked the lot sizes of 243 stocks, triggering liquidity concerns in the derivatives segment as more margin was to be deposited for trading. The lot sizes of 143 stocks have been reduced to 25% to bring down the current underlying values to increase retail participation.