Derivatives Bank Nifty weekly expiry SEBI options NSE

The phaseout of Bank Nifty weekly options

From WebNotes, a public knowledge base. Last updated 21 June 2026. Reading time ~12 min.

Key facts

What was discontinued	Bank Nifty weekly options, stopped from 20 November 2024 under the SEBI October 2024 framework
Why	SEBI restricted each exchange to one weekly index option; the NSE kept Nifty 50 over Bank Nifty
What remains	Bank Nifty monthly options and monthly futures continue to trade
Current expiry day	Last Tuesday of the month, since the NSE moved to Tuesday on 1 September 2025
Old weekly expiry day	Thursday, before the contraction
Lot size	Raised from 15 to 30 in November 2024, recalibrated since as the index moved

The phaseout of Bank Nifty weekly options removed the most heavily traded short-dated index option in India from the National Stock Exchange on 20 November 2024. It was a direct consequence of the Securities and Exchange Board of India rule, in the October 2024 derivatives framework, that each exchange may run only one weekly index option. The NSE could keep one, and it kept the broader Nifty 50 over Bank Nifty , so the Bank Nifty weekly was discontinued while its monthly options and futures continued to trade.

The withdrawal mattered because the Bank Nifty weekly had been a centre of retail option turnover. Its higher volatility relative to the Nifty made it the preferred short-dated vehicle for directional and premium-selling strategies, and its Thursday expiry shared the day with the Nifty weekly. This article covers what was discontinued, the SEBI reasoning that drove the choice, exactly what remains tradable, how the remaining monthly contracts expire after the September 2025 weekday change, and what the phaseout did to traders who relied on the weekly.

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What was discontinued

The Bank Nifty weekly option was withdrawn, not the Bank Nifty derivative itself. Before 20 November 2024 the NSE listed a weekly Bank Nifty option expiring every Thursday alongside a monthly option and monthly futures. The weekly expiry contraction of November 2024 stopped the issue of new Bank Nifty weekly contracts; existing weeklies opened before the cutover ran to their natural Thursday expiry in the second and third weeks of November 2024, and from the week of 18 November 2024 no Bank Nifty weekly traded.

The contraction took the same form across four NSE indices. Bank Nifty, Nifty Financial Services, Nifty Midcap Select and Nifty Next 50 all lost their weekly options on the same cutover; the BSE separately dropped its Bankex weekly. Only the Nifty 50 weekly survived on the NSE and the Sensex weekly on the BSE. Bank Nifty was the largest of the discontinued set by turnover, so its removal accounted for the biggest single piece of the volume that left the weekly calendar.

SEBI’s reasoning and the choice of Nifty over Bank Nifty

The restriction came from SEBI’s “Measures to Strengthen the Index Derivatives Framework,” circular dated 1 October 2024, one of six measures aimed at retail F&O risk. SEBI’s September 2024 study found more than 90 per cent of individual F&O traders lost money over FY22 to FY24, with aggregate retail losses near Rs 1.81 trillion over three years, and identified ultra-short-dated weekly options as the dominant loss vector. The study found retail turnover concentrated in weekly index options held for under a single session, indicating short-horizon speculation rather than hedging. Limiting each exchange to one weekly cut the daily rotation of weekly expiries that had structured that speculation across the week.

Given one slot, the NSE chose the Nifty 50. The Nifty is the broader benchmark, spanning 50 stocks across sectors against Bank Nifty’s concentration in banking, and it carries wider institutional and retail participation. Bank Nifty’s higher volatility, which made it attractive to short-dated speculators, was part of what SEBI’s framework was designed to dampen, so retaining the calmer broad-market index over the more volatile sector index aligned the choice with the policy intent. The reasoning is set out in the SEBI F&O entry barrier rules 2024 .

What remains tradable

Bank Nifty remains a full F&O underlying in its monthly tenor. Two contracts continue.

Bank Nifty monthly options trade as before, with the lot raised from 15 to 30 in November 2024 to meet the Rs 15 lakh notional floor and recalibrated since as the index moved. Strikes, premium pricing and the options chain all work as they did; only the weekly tenor is gone. Bank Nifty monthly futures were never affected; futures carry a single monthly tenor and continue to trade across the near, next and far month.

Bank Nifty contract	Status after 20 November 2024
Weekly option	Discontinued
Monthly option	Trading, lot 30 (was 15)
Monthly future	Trading, unaffected
Expiry day	Last Tuesday of the month, since 1 September 2025

Sources: SEBI Measures to Strengthen the Index Derivatives Framework, 1 October 2024; NSE implementation circulars, November 2024; NSE contract specifications, accessed June 2026.

Expiry day after the September 2025 change

The surviving Bank Nifty monthly contracts moved with the rest of the NSE book in the September 2025 weekday standardisation. The SEBI circular dated 26 May 2025 fixed the NSE expiry day at Tuesday from 1 September 2025, so the Bank Nifty monthly option and future now expire on the last Tuesday of the month, not the last Thursday. A Tuesday holiday pulls the expiry to the previous trading day, per the F&O expiry calendar .

So a Bank Nifty trader today faces a single expiry per month on the last Tuesday, against the weekly-plus-monthly Thursday rhythm of before. The contract is the same Bank Nifty; the frequency and the weekday both changed.

Impact on traders

The phaseout forced three responses, documented in the broker-data and survey evidence from late 2024 and early 2025.

Some traders extended tenor, moving from the Bank Nifty weekly to the Bank Nifty monthly. The monthly contract saw higher volume in late November and December 2024 as part of the displaced weekly capital migrated into it. The monthly tenor decays more slowly, so weekly premium-selling strategies that depended on fast theta had to be rebuilt around the weekly versus monthly trade-off, accepting slower decay and a single late-month gamma spike instead of a weekly one.

Others switched underlying, moving to the surviving Nifty 50 weekly , accepting the broad-market index and its lower volatility in exchange for keeping the weekly tenor. The Nifty weekly absorbed a measurable share of displaced Bank Nifty volume on Thursdays before the weekday change, then on Tuesdays after it. A third group exited F&O; aggregate retail F&O turnover fell roughly 20 to 30 per cent in the months after the cutover, the largest drop in over five years, reflecting the combined effect of the weekly contraction, the lot-size rise and the STT hike .

The strategy casualties were specific. Daily expiry-day straddles on Bank Nifty, which had used its high volatility for large intra-day theta and gamma, lost their dedicated contract. Sector-rotation trades that expressed a banking-sector view through the Bank Nifty weekly had to use the monthly or proxy through the Nifty. Calendar spreads between consecutive Bank Nifty weeklies were no longer constructible because only one Bank Nifty tenor remained.

Whether the weekly can return

Under the current rule, no. The SEBI framework caps each exchange at one weekly index option, and the NSE’s single slot is occupied by the Nifty 50. Reinstating a Bank Nifty weekly would require SEBI to revise the one-weekly-per-exchange restriction, which it has not signalled as of mid-2026. The framework has, if anything, been reinforced by the May 2025 weekday standardisation rather than relaxed. A trader who needs short-dated banking-sector exposure has no exchange-traded weekly route to it; the options are the Bank Nifty monthly, the Nifty weekly as an imperfect proxy, or cash and futures positions in individual banking stocks.

External references

References

Securities and Exchange Board of India, “Measures to Strengthen the Index Derivatives Framework,” circular dated 1 October 2024, sebi.gov.in, accessed June 2026.
Securities and Exchange Board of India, “Final Settlement Day (Expiry Day) for Equity Derivative Contracts,” circular dated 26 May 2025, sebi.gov.in.
Securities and Exchange Board of India, “Study on Profile and Performance of Individual Traders in Equity Futures and Options (F&O) Segment,” September 2024, sebi.gov.in.
National Stock Exchange of India, weekly expiry contraction implementation circulars, November 2024, nseindia.com, accessed June 2026.
National Stock Exchange of India, equity derivatives contract specifications and lot-size circulars, nseindia.com, accessed June 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Are Bank Nifty weekly options still available?

No. Bank Nifty weekly options were discontinued from 20 November 2024 under the SEBI one-weekly-per-exchange rule. The NSE retained the Nifty 50 weekly and dropped the Bank Nifty weekly. Bank Nifty now trades monthly options and monthly futures only.

Why were Bank Nifty weeklies removed?

SEBI’s October 2024 derivatives framework restricted each exchange to one weekly index option. The NSE could keep only one, and it chose the Nifty 50, the broader benchmark with deeper participation. Bank Nifty, FinNifty, Nifty Midcap Select and Nifty Next 50 weeklies were all discontinued.

What Bank Nifty contracts can I still trade?

Bank Nifty monthly options and monthly futures remain. Both expire on the last Tuesday of the month since the NSE moved to a Tuesday expiry on 1 September 2025. The monthly tenor was never affected by the weekly contraction; only the weekly option was withdrawn.

When does the Bank Nifty monthly expire?

On the last Tuesday of the month. The NSE moved all its derivatives to Tuesday from 1 September 2025, so the Bank Nifty monthly option and future expire the last Tuesday, shifting to the previous trading day if that Tuesday is a holiday.

How did the phaseout affect Bank Nifty traders?

Traders who ran weekly Bank Nifty strategies had to move to the monthly tenor, switch to the surviving Nifty 50 weekly, or exit. The monthly Bank Nifty saw higher volume after November 2024, but aggregate Bank Nifty short-dated turnover fell because the weekly contract was gone.

Can Bank Nifty weeklies come back?

Not under the current rule. The SEBI framework caps each exchange at one weekly index option, and the NSE’s slot is taken by the Nifty 50. A return would require SEBI to revise the one-weekly-per-exchange restriction, which it has not signalled as of mid-2026.

Reviewed and published by

WebNotes Editorial Team

The WebNotes Editorial Team covers Indian capital markets, payments infrastructure and retail investor procedures. Every article is fact-checked against primary sources, principally SEBI circulars and master directions, NPCI specifications and the official support documentation published by the intermediary in question. Drafts go through a second-pair-of-eyes review and a separate compliance read before publication, and revisions are tracked against the SEBI and NPCI rule changes referenced in the methodology section.

Last reviewed: 21 June 2026
Conflicts of interest: WebNotes is independent. No relationship with any broker, registrar or bank named in this article.