Singapore Exchange to continue SGX Nifty trade despite India dispute

Reuters

Published Jun 16, 2018 05:02AM ET

Singapore Exchange to continue SGX Nifty trade despite India dispute

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Singapore Exchange (SGX) (SI:SGXL) on Saturday said a court-appointed arbitrator had allowed it to continue listing and trading of SGX Nifty contracts beyond August 2018, during dispute resolution with India's National Stock Exchange (NSE). The two exchanges have been locked in dispute after India's three main bourses unexpectedly announced in February they would stop licensing their indexes to foreign bourses from August.

SGX responded that it would launch successor products to its flagship Indian equity derivative products on June 4.

Now NSE and SGX have been ordered "to facilitate the continued listing of SGX Nifty products for at least two successive contract month maturations beyond the arbitration's completion date", SGX said in a statement. The arbitrator has also asked SGX not to offer its proposed new India equity derivative products until the final decision, it said. "Arbitration proceedings are continuing and the hearings on evidence are expected to commence in early 2019," the statement said. SGX had postponed the launch of a set of new India derivatives products after an Indian court in May referred a dispute around the proposed offerings to an arbitrator. The NSE had sought an interim injunction against the launch on grounds that the offerings infringed the intellectual property rights of its unit India Index Services and Products (IISL), which runs the Nifty index. The Bombay High Court then asked a senior retired judge to arbitrate in the matter, and resolve the issue by June 16. However, the June 16 interim order, which was reviewed by Reuters, laid out a timeline for filing of claims and counter-claims and set November 21 for hearing of the issues, with further directions to be provided on June 18.