The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has deferred its plan to change the expiry day of its contracts to Monday after the market regulator’s consultation paper on Thursday. This comes a week before NSE’s expiry day switch from Thursdays was slated to take effect.

The move has sent shares of BSE over 13 per cent higher so far on Friday. BSE’s shares had taken a hit after rival NSE had announced the change in its expiry days, in anticipation of its futures and options (F&O) volumes getting adversely impacted.

Currently, all contracts of NSE expire on Thursdays and those of BSE on Tuesdays.

NSE had earlier announced that it will shift the expiry date for Nifty index weekly derivative contracts from Thursday to Monday, effective April 4. The change was also to apply to Nifty’s monthly, quarterly, and half-yearly contracts.

“Members are required to note that the implementation of this circular (shift of expiry to Monday) is deferred until further notice in view of SEBI consultation paper dated March 27, 2025 on Final Settlement Day for Equity Derivatives,” NSE said in its latest circular.

Last evening, SEBI proposed having all equity derivative contracts expiry either on Tuesday or Thursday. It also proposed that the exchanges must seek SEBI’s approval to modify contract expiries or settlement dates.

“This is to provide optimal spacing between expiries across exchanges, while avoiding the choice of either the first day of the week or the last day as an expiry day,” the consultation paper said, adding that too many expiry days has the potential to revive expiry day hyperactivity.