Nifty 50 futures contract specifications

Nifty 50 futures are exchange-traded futures contracts on the Nifty 50 index, listed and settled on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and traded in India through brokers including Zerodha . One contract represents a fixed lot of index units, 65 from the January 2026 cycle, settles in cash against the index value on expiry, and expires on the last Tuesday of its contract month under the schedule SEBI set from September 2025. The underlying Nifty 50 index is maintained by NSE Indices Limited and tracks the 50 largest and most liquid stocks listed on NSE.

This article sets out the full contract specification: the underlying index and its maintainer, the lot size and how the November 2024 framework set it, the tick size and its rupee value, the three serial monthly contracts and how they roll, the Tuesday expiry that replaced the long-standing Thursday expiry, cash settlement against the index close, and the margin to hold one lot. It is a reference for traders placing Nifty futures orders on Kite and for anyone reading a Nifty futures symbol who needs to know exactly what one contract commits them to.

Underlying index

The underlying of Nifty 50 futures is the Nifty 50 index, a free-float market-capitalisation weighted index of 50 large companies across sectors, maintained by NSE Indices Limited (formerly India Index Services and Products Limited). The index is reconstituted half-yearly, in March and September, and computed in real time during market hours. Its closing value on a futures contract’s expiry day is the settlement reference for that contract.

The futures contract derives its value from the index, not from any single stock. A trader long one Nifty futures lot gains when the index rises and loses when it falls, in proportion to the lot size, regardless of which constituents drove the move. Because the underlying is an index rather than a deliverable security, the contract is cash settled.

Lot size and contract value

The contract specification fixes the lot at 65 units from the January 2026 cycle. This figure is the output of the SEBI framework that requires an index derivative contract to be worth at least Rs 15 lakh.

NSE measured the average closing price of the Nifty 50 over a review period of 16 September to 15 October 2024 and set the lot so the contract value reached the Rs 15 lakh floor. With the index near 25,000, the lot moved from 25 to 75 in late 2024. It was revised down to 65 from the January 2026 cycle as the index level allowed a smaller lot to stay in the Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh band. At an index of 25,000, a 65-unit lot carries a contract value of about Rs 16.25 lakh.

The lot size matters because it sets the minimum exposure, the margin and the per-point rupee value. A trader cannot take a position smaller than one lot of 65 units; positions move in whole multiples of the lot.

Tick size

The tick size is Rs 0.05, meaning the futures price quotes in steps of five paise per index point. The price cannot move by less than one tick.

On a 65-unit lot, one tick is worth Rs 3.25 (65 multiplied by Rs 0.05). This is the smallest profit or loss the position can register per lot and the granularity of every quoted bid and offer. A trader reading a Nifty futures price of 25,134.55 is reading a value quoted to the nearest five paise; the next valid price above it is 25,134.60.

Contract cycle and rollover

NSE lists three serial monthly Nifty futures contracts at any time: the near-month, the next-month and the far-month. The near-month is the most liquid and carries the bulk of the volume; the next-month and far-month trade thinner.

When the near-month contract expires on its last Tuesday, NSE introduces a new far-month contract so that three months are always available. A trader holding a near-month position who wants to maintain exposure beyond expiry rolls the position over: closing the near-month and opening the equivalent next-month position. The cost of a rollover is the brokerage on two order pairs plus the roll spread, the price difference between the two contracts. The operational steps appear in how to rollover an F&O position on Zerodha .

Expiry day

Nifty 50 futures expire on the last Tuesday of the expiry month. This is a change from the historical schedule. SEBI standardised derivatives expiry days from 1 September 2025, assigning all NSE contracts a Tuesday expiry and all BSE contracts a Thursday expiry, to prevent both exchanges from clustering expiries on the same or adjacent days.

If the last Tuesday is a trading holiday, expiry shifts to the previous trading day. The expiry date is encoded in the contract symbol, so a near-month contract reads as NIFTY followed by its expiry identifier. Traders who held the prior Thursday-expiry calendar in mind need to update it: the Nifty futures expiry has moved two days earlier in the week since September 2025. The broader mechanics of how the expiry calendar works are set out in how the options expiry calendar works .

Settlement

Nifty 50 futures are cash settled. At expiry the contract settles against the closing value of the Nifty 50 index on the expiry day, computed by NSE Indices Limited. No shares change hands, because the underlying is an index, not a deliverable security.

The settlement converts the difference between the trader’s entry price and the index close into a cash credit or debit. A long position settled above entry receives the difference times the lot size; a long position settled below entry pays it. This is the central distinction from single-stock futures, which are physically settled and create a delivery obligation, detailed in physical settlement of stock F&O . For Nifty futures there is no delivery risk; the obligation at expiry is purely a cash mark to the index close.

Margin to hold one lot

Holding one Nifty futures lot requires SPAN margin plus exposure margin . SPAN is the exchange’s portfolio-risk margin, computed as the worst-case one-day loss across defined price and volatility scenarios. The exposure margin is an additional cushion, typically 2 per cent of notional value for index futures.

In practice the total margin for one Nifty futures lot runs to roughly Rs 1.8 lakh to Rs 2.2 lakh, depending on prevailing volatility, against a contract value near Rs 16 lakh. That is leverage of roughly eight times: a trader posts about Rs 2 lakh to control Rs 16 lakh of index exposure. The live figure is shown by the Zerodha margin calculator before order placement, because SPAN is recalculated by NSE at least four times a day and can move intraday. Intraday traders using the MIS product code get a reduced margin in exchange for a same-session square-off; positional traders use NRML and post the full margin.

Reading a Nifty futures order

A trader placing a Nifty futures order on Kite sees the symbol, the quantity in multiples of 65, the price in five-paise ticks and the margin required. One lot is the minimum; the quantity field steps in lots, not single units. The contract month is selected from the near, next or far month, and the expiry day, the last Tuesday, is fixed by the contract. Confirming the lot size in the order window matters during a revision transition, because the near-month and a newly introduced far-month can briefly carry different lots until the older contract expires.

See also

• Nifty 50
• F&O segment on Zerodha
• National Stock Exchange
• Bombay Stock Exchange
• FinNifty futures on Zerodha
• Midcap Nifty futures on Zerodha
• Nifty Next 50 futures on Zerodha
• Stock futures lot size on NSE
• How the options expiry calendar works
• Nifty weekly expiry on Zerodha
• Weekly versus monthly expiry
• How to rollover an F&O position on Zerodha
• SPAN margin on Zerodha
• Exposure margin on Zerodha
• Zerodha margin calculator
• NRML product code
• MIS product code
• Kite (Zerodha)
• Physical settlement of stock F&O
• Risks of F&O trading on Zerodha
• Weekly expiry contraction, November 2024
• How to trade futures on Kite for the first time
• Nifty 50 ETF
• Open interest
• India VIX

External references

• NSE: Equity derivatives contract specifications
• NSE Indices: Nifty 50 index methodology
• SEBI: Final settlement day (expiry day) for equity derivatives contracts
• Z-Connect: NSE expiry day change to Tuesday
• Zerodha margin calculator

References

1. NSE, Equity derivatives contract specifications, Nifty 50 futures.
2. NSE Indices Limited, Nifty 50 index methodology document.
3. SEBI, final settlement day for equity derivatives standardised to Tuesday for NSE and Thursday for BSE, effective 1 September 2025.
4. NSE circular, revised lot size for Nifty 50 derivatives, 65 units effective from the January 2026 cycle.
5. SEBI, measures to strengthen the index derivatives framework, circular dated 1 October 2024.